


Forgotten

by Calypphire



Series: Beyond Series [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Alternate Universe, Amnesia, F/M, Forced Pregnancy, Gen, M/M, Mating, Mating Bond, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Memory Loss, Mpreg, Multi, Mutants, Original Character(s), Other, Past Abuse, Past Torture, Slow Burn, Weirdness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-04
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-01-22 19:34:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 17
Words: 36,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21307451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Calypphire/pseuds/Calypphire
Summary: Michelangelo helps a girl who is trying to escape from some nasty looking men, from there it pretty much opens up a whole new ball game for the Turtles and Splinter as they learn about SAROHE and the going ons within the place.While Severus and Remus are doing what they can to keep out of SAROHE hands.Rated Explicit because I am not even sure if the contents within would be suited for a Mature rating, let alone a T Rating, and I do like to play it safe with ratings and warnings where stories are concerned. Will be adding tags as story goes
Relationships: Michelangelo (TMNT)/Original Character(s), Remus Lupin/Severus Snape
Series: Beyond Series [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1359733
Comments: 115
Kudos: 8





	1. 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a story that I wrote years ago. By years, I mean YEARS! To where I can't even remember what year I even put the pen to the paper, or even transferred it to the computer/word.
> 
> Turned out that I found a copy of it on an old USB and decided to why not share it. There may be some changes as the chapters go along, as it had been that long and it seems that some changes are much needed, but here is the first chapter of the story I had called "Forgotten".
> 
> Why I came up with the title name I honestly can't remember the reason, guess it's a title within that played into reality from my point of view, lol.
> 
> I do hope you enjoy this story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited/Added:  
(This took a while to really figure out where the story was actually going to bring this summary/backstory/etc into it, as mentioned, it was years since I've written parts of this story which have made it in to this updated version, plus adding the parts that are new).
> 
> In the beginning of when life was still taking shape, there were once beings that were powerful, and those who were not. Compatibility to breed was a real need, which in turn evolved to how Magic and Non-magic came into being; and how that transformed into the difference between the two. However, like any and all of adaptability, this doesn't always mean that magic stayed non-magic or vis-versa, and many a times repressed genes resurface, or reform to be nothing but a blit to pass on to either disappear, or return.
> 
> Wizards were once with the lines that progressed with what they called the Evolution Gene, later on to being known as the Mutation. Seen as the prized blood to have within the veins, going as far as ensuring the protection of this, as laws began to form, turning into the Ministries and so forth, that help keep order within the Magical communities.
> 
> Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, people wanted to exploit this Evolution Gene for their own means; especially when some of the Wizarding world began to be born without this particular gene; or it never surfaces when they reach Tempus maturitatem = Maturing phase.  
This exploitation also lead to more sinister practices...
> 
> For this particular tale begins in the city of Manhatten, where a girl is running for her safety...

Chapter One

Rain bucketed down upon the Big Apple. Hurrying along the darkened streets, a teenage girl gave a check over her shoulder, causing her to nearly run straight into a hand-holding couple. However she did not stop to apologise, she knew if she dared to slow down …

She didn't slow down, not until she saw a possibility when she spied an alleyway. Without hesitating to think, she ran straight on down it, in the hopes of ending in some other street that might put some distance between her and her pursuers. She followed the path, making a hard left at one point, and then had to make an immediate right. Only as she turned the corner did she skid to a halt.

A dead end!

"_Damn it!_" she exasperated at the sight of the wire fence.

It was half way past six foot in height, with sharp barbs at the top. However, she figured the only way she could continue to try and get away is to climb it. So, with nothing else to lose, the girl went over to the small metal trash can that was next to the fence in hopes that would act as a bit of a boost.

Yet, just as she was close to the top, she was grabbed by the ankle and pulled hard. The force made her let go and as a result, allowed the person who grabbed her shove her right into the fence in order to pin her against it.

"Oof!" she grunted, feeling the cold, hard steel pressing right in on her face and body.  
"Did you really believe you could get away?" a smooth voice from behind her spoke.

She knew it didn't belong to the person holding her, for she was pulled away from the fencing with a bit of aggression, spun around and pushed back into the fence. She was now seeing the people she had been trying to escape from. The alley was quite dark, but the poor lighting did give some reprieve. Plus she had other ways of being able to see where it was dark. Standing about two metres away was a six foot tall man with slim build, wearing a dark grey suit and tie. His face looked like it had been perfectly carved from stone, darkened hair and eyes of piercing grey.

With him were two men of larger size. The girl always called them the Hired Help. One was practically all muscle and average height, with brown crew cut and a face like a bulldog, the other was tall and solid and came off looking like he was a fish in another life. The bulldog was the one who had grabbed her from the fence and was standing right beside her, holding her left wrist.

"Well? Aren't you going to answer?" asked the man in the grey suit. "Calypso?"  
Calypso clenched her hands into fists, glaring at him with her blue and amber eyes, set in a face with high cheekbones and pointed nose. Every single bit of her from her blond ponytail to her sneakers was soaked through, yet right now, it mattered not. Nor did it seem to these men.

"I am _**not**_ going back, Stokes!" she spoke with a hiss in her voice.  
Stokes gave a cruel snicker. "But where would you go? You have no identity! No memory of who you were, or even where you came from!"  
She looked away as he said this, her fist still clenched, teeth gritted. How many times he has told her that, over and over.  
"Face it, Calypso, you died many years ago! You belong to SAROHE and always will!" Stokes said in a matter-of-factly tone. "You will come along without a fuss. Duke drag her if you have to."

"_**Never!**_" Calypso snarled, she then managed to yank her left arm free, and then sent her right fist flying into the man's face. Only the man seemed to have expected it, for he caught the fist. However he did not expect the girl to suddenly spit …

"AAAHHH!" Duke screamed, as his hands clutched his eyes in agony and dropping to his knees. "_My eyes! **They burn!**_"  
Calypso saw Victor hesitate and saw her chance and went to try and climb the fence again.  
"Get her you fool!" Stokes ordered.

Victor did as he was commanded and darted forward, grabbing Calypso and pulling her away from the fence and getting her into a bear hug, pinning her arms at her side. She tried to kick about and squirm, but to no effect. She then tried to bite Victor, only to find it to be useless, for she felt something hard underneath Victor's leather jacket.

Stokes sniggered. "Metal cuffs," he said simply. "Stops those lovely fangs. Though I must admit to not making a mention about your spitting habit."  
Duke was now curled up on the ground, still very much in pain. "Make it stop!" he cried.  
Stokes ignored him. "Now … Victor, kindly bring the little pet along," he instructed the other.  
Victor went to follow Stokes, keeping a firm hold on the ever squirming Calypso, while Stokes made to turn around in order to lead them out of the alleyway.

"I don't think that's such a good idea, dude!" came a voice that seemed to come out of nowhere.  
Stokes and Victor froze.  
"Who's there?" Stokes demanded, his hand going to reach into the inside of his jacket.

Calypso felt that Victor had loosened his hold. This gave her the chance to suddenly drop flat on to the ground and kick the man from under his feet. Stokes spun at the sound of Victor's thud upon the concrete and from somewhere out of the shadows Calypso saw a trash can lid come flying out and sailed right into the back of Stokes. This caused the man to fall forwards and land upon his hands and knees, missing a muddy looking puddle.

"What are you waiting for," spoke the voice to Calypso. "Make a run for it!"  
Calypso didn't need to be told twice; making a dash for the fence and managing to clamber up and over it, to the other side and didn't look back, turning a corner, and then another, before she spied a fire-escape ladder and climbed it. It was not until she had reached the very top that she was finally feeling safe to stop and catch her breath.

She sat down, back to the wall of the edge, putting her head to her forehead and just trying to think.  
"Are you okay now?" asked the voice from before.  
Calypso's head jerked up and trying to find the owner of it.  
"I … I guess …" she answered with uncertainty in her tone. "Thank you, by the way, for helping me."  
"It was no big. It's part of what I do."

Calypso kept scanning the area, until she saw an outline, not too far, in the shadows.  
"Do you not worry about being seen, given what you are?" she then said.  
There was silence for a moment, before the owner stepped into some better lighting, surprised was the mildest way to describe his expression.  
"How did you know I was there? Or what I was?"

He was a large turtle, standing on his hind legs, exactly like that of a human. He was wearing an orange bandanna-mask, and the rain seemed to glide fluently down, within the grooves of his shell.  
Calypso didn't know how to answer.  
"I'm not what I appear to be," was all she could bring herself to say.  
"Is that why those dudes were chasing you?" the Turtle asks.  
"Yes."  
"Are you going to be okay? Now that you're away from them?"

"If you can point me to a place where I can stay for the night, I would be most grateful. It's best that they don't know about you," Calypso said, as she stood back up, hand resting on the ledge.  
"But, you're hurt!"  
Calypso frowned a little and looked down to see a blood stain on her shirt.  
"It's nothing," she said, shrugging at it.  
"Please, let me take you to my friend, she might help you find a place to stay and get that looked at," the Turtle insisted. Seeing that she was debating over the offer, he added; "Maybe even help you get home in the morning?"  
"I have no home," she said straight after. "I don't know what home is. I don't even know if Calypso is even my actual name, or the one Stokes, that you helped me get away from, gave me."

"Then, I guess that settles it. My name is Michelangelo, I know where I live, who I am and I know that I want to see that you are safe," Calypso caught a slight mix of cheeky and sad in this Turtle's tone, to which she couldn't help smiling a little.  
"Alright," she agreed. "I'll go with you, to your friend's."


	2. 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slowly going through the old chapters and fixing anything that needs to be fixed up.  
However, after a certain chapter, I think things will be changing slightly from what was originally written, there will be a disclaimer if this happens.

Chapter Two

April O'Neil opened the door to her apartment, above her shop, A Second Time 'Round.  
"Michelangelo! I had Leo calling me, asking if I've seen you," she said, noticeably worried and relieved.  
"Sorry April," Michelangelo apologised. "I got held up; I'll call Leo, in a moment, and explain."  
April saw an extremely soaked Calypso standing on the step behind him. "Who is your friend?"  
"This is Calypso," said Michelangelo. "I helped her get away from some bozos, and she still needs some help."  
April opens the door wider; "Best you two get out of the rain, first."

Michelangelo and Calypso entered the small apartment.  
"Mikey, use my phone, call your brothers and Master," April instructed the Turtle in Orange, before turning to Calypso. "While I see to it that you get some dry clothing, and have that wound cleaned up."  
"But, I already said that it's nothing," Calypso bit her lower lip a little.  
It was when she did this; April noticed the top canines of the girl's teeth were sharper than what normal human looking teeth ought to be.  
"I would feel better if it was checked," April said, kindly, brushing what she saw out of mind.  
While April took Calypso to the bedroom, Michelangelo went to the kitchen, where the phone was on the wall. He picked it up and dialled the first number he could think of.

The rings didn't last for a mere few seconds, before it was answered.  
_"Hello?"_  
"Raph!"  
_"Mikey?"_  
"Yeah, it's me!"  
_"You're in serious deep trouble, ya know that, bro!"_  
"I got held up! I'm at April's now!"  
Michelangelo then saw movement from his peripheral vision, turning to see April. From the look on her face, she was looking pretty darn worried.

"Hang on," he told Raphael, lowering the phone just enough and made the gesture for his friend to speak.  
"Get the guys over here! Splinter too, if possible," April said.  
The phone going back to the ear, Michelangelo relayed what April just told him.  
"_Hang tight, we'll be there!_" Raphael responded before the phone disconnected.

"Why am I getting Master Splinter and the guys over here?" Michelangelo asked, placing the phone back on the hook.  
"The girl, Calypso, passed out within seconds of getting to the room. But that isn't only reason why I asked. I went to check her wound and … it beyond bizarre, and this is coming from someone who know is friends with Mutants," April explained.  
"Bizarre, as in how?"  
"Well, turns out the blood may have been from something else, not from her exactly, but it might have been from her … _gills_ …"  
"Gills?" Michelangelo made a face. "Like a fish?"  
"I don't know," said April, putting her hands out to the sides and her shoulders going up, to show her confusion.  
"Don't see how this ought to be bought to the others attention," Michelangelo said truthfully.  
"I guess perhaps it was better than the alternative of calling for a doctor," said April. "Especially after what I have just seen."

Michelangelo could see where his friend was coming from. Though, he had no idea exactly what April had _actually_ seen.  
"Perhaps while we wait, you go keep an eye on her, while I get the first aid kit and some clean clothes for the girl," April then suggested.  
"Right on, April," Michelangelo agreed.  
They parted ways, Michelangelo going to the very neat and tidy bedroom. Well, mostly neat and tidy. There was a small pile of clothing in the far corner and the vanity was quite cluttered.  
Lying on her left side, facing away from the door, toward the wall, Calypso did appear to be completely out cold. The bed sheets and pillows now partially soaked, due to her coming out of the rain.

"Here!"  
He whipped his head around to suddenly catch a towel April had thrown him.  
"You're still sopping wet, Mikey."  
"Sorry," Michelangelo apologised, starting to pat himself dry.  
"Don't worry about it. This apartment has had worse. Small puddles on the floor aren't too much of a bother," she replied, as she went to the bed, and sitting on the side edge, close to the girl.

Not withholding his own curiosity, and seeing if he ought to be helping, Mikey moved closer. April had lifted the side of the shirt, where the bloodstain was;  
"_Whoa!_" his eyes widened at the sight of them.  
Between the hip and ribs on the side were four neatly spaced slits that had the Turtle thinking they belonged on a shark, not a human being. Blood was trickling out of one of the middle ones.  
"The bleeding has appeared to have slowed down," April observed.  
"Do you think that may have been why she passed out?" Michelangelo asked.  
"I don’t know, maybe,” April replies. “Stay here," she then instructed; "Keep this on the area. I'll keep an eye out for your brothers and Master Splinter."

Mikey took the clean cloth from April, took her place on the bed, when she left and put the cloth on the instructed area.  
He observed the girl a little more. Noticing what looked like patches of scales around her wrists, elbows and temple just above the right eye, from where they were most visible for the time being. Her dark blonde hair had faint traces of light blue and purple; probably from hair dye, Michelangelo concluded in his mind.  
Mesmerised, Mikey almost didn't hear or see them coming in.

"Who's the girl?" Raphael asked.  
"She calls herself Calypso," Michelangelo answered, only glancing their way for a moment. "Helped her get away from dudes, one of them saying something about her belonging to some place called SAROHE? Whatever that means."  
He remembered hearing it, before stepping in.  
"Belonging? Like a piece of property?" Raphael returned, making a small face.  
"I've heard of the name a couple of times," Donatello piped up, trying to think of what he knew about it. "They run a number of programs in varying places, including schools and stuff around the globe. Not sure what they actually do though."  
"Wow, Donny, even the quiet names don't get passed you," Leonardo said, a little impressed.  
"Why, thank you, Leo," Donatello grinned.

By this point, Splinter had approached. "How long as she been in this state?"  
"She went out cold about two to three minutes after she and Mikey came here, so probably for about fifteen to twenty minutes," April took a guess.  
Splinter softly placed the back of his hand on the girl's temple area, as though the check for any form of temperature. Then gently got Michelangelo to remove the cloth away. If the sight surprised the Rat, he didn't show it.  
"The bleedings stopped!" April pointed out. "It wasn't like that moments before."  
"Mm …" the girl stirred.

Calypso's amber and blue eyes slowly opened, seeing a nice peach coloured wall ahead of her. To her it was, nice, as it wasn't a grey and clear wall she was used to waking up to.  
She made to sit up, only to find her head spinning, putting her right hand to her face, while keeping supported on her left.  
"Easy!" said Michelangelo.

The sound of his voice, caused Calypso to snap her head, which turned out to be the worst idea, given she looked like she was about to pass out again. She accepted the help from this orange bandanna wearing Turtle to sit up better, and wasn't letting go of him, out of not wanting to fall off the bed. Sensing this, Mikey just kept his hands in respectful areas and kept his arms as a form of support.

"Are you alright?" Splinter decided to ask.  
"Besides having my world spinning inside my head …" Calypso lightly grumbled.  
It was then she went to look at the owner of the voice she heard. She stared at this five foot tall rat, blinking for a few moments.  
"You're not from SAROHE …" was all she could come up with.  
Splinter shook his head. "No. I am not."

"Who are you?" Calypso then asked, now seeing the other three close to six foot tall Turtles. "What are you?"  
"Could ask you the same thing," April said before she could stop herself. Her hand shooting to cover her mouth, immediately regretting it.  
"I know I'm not what I appear to be," Calypso replies, not looking at her. "Been this way for as long as I can remember."  
"I guess you could call yourself a Mutant, like we do," Donatello offered.  
Giving a wry smile; "Definitely sounds better than other alternatives, other than being called a hybrid," she says.  
"Hybrid?" Leonardo said.  
"A combination of different forms of species," said Donatello without thinking.

"Other than calling yourselves Mutants, I can assume you have names?" Calypso said, now shifting and letting go of Mikey and putting her feet to the ground, but still sitting. "Michelangelo already told me his, as did April."  
This gave Splinter and the Turtles the prompt to introduce themselves.  
"Renaissance Artists explains your name," Calypso said after, looking at Mikey.  
"Where else would my name be from?" Michelangelo asked.  
"Given that my first thought, after hearing your name may have been after the Archangel, Michael."  
This had Michelangelo's brothers laughing.  
"I wouldn't laugh, if I were you," Calypso said to Raphael. "Your name is from one of the Archangels, too."  
This shut Raphael up, in turn had Michelangelo laugh too.

"I think now would be an appropriate time for you fellas to leave the room," April now spoke up. "Whatever stories that need to be shared can be done after the girl has a fresh change of clothes!"  
"Of course," said Splinter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer; SAROHE is pronounced "Sah-Row-EE", the 'H' for whatever reason came up silent in my mind when writing or thinking it, but if it feels more "Sah-row-HE" to you, by all means.


	3. 3

Chapter Three

"Thank you," Calypso said when April shut the door, once Splinter and the Turtles were out of the room.  
"Didn't think you'd want to change in front of a bunch of guys, plus I have no idea if any of what I grabbed would to fit you," April replied, facing her, and pointing to a pile of clothes on a chair near the closet.  
Calypso took a better look at the woman before her. April had her dark red hair up in a ponytail, wearing beige cargo pants and dark coloured shirt. Extremely fair skin and a kind pair of blue eyes.

"I'm sure we'll find something," Calypso said with a polite smile.  
April went over to the clothing, while Calypso went to remove her shirt. Upon this, April saw that the same four slits she saw on Calypso's right side, was also on the left of her body. More scales were upon her back and around the side slits, like snake scales, glistened a little from the light, these ones appeared to be paler olive green, compared to the ones on her arms and temples, which were more blended in with her fair skin; the shirt really kept that well hidden, even when the bleeding was happening.

"Try this on, first," April offered, giving Calypso a simple light grey singlet with an inbuilt in it.  
"Thank you," Calypso accepted and replaced her old bra with the fresh clean singlet. It fit just fine, though a little loose at the bottom.  
It wasn't long before Calypso was in a dry pair of black three-quarter pants and simple light pink T-shirt, and her hair was out of the ponytail it was in, touching down to just past her shoulders.

Splinter and the Turtles were in the living and dining area of the small apartment.  
Splinter was in the lone armchair, with Leonardo sitting cross-legged on the floor beside his Sensei. Michelangelo and Donatello were at the dining table, while Raphael was on the couch, close to Leonardo.  
"How are you feeling?" Michelangelo first asked the girl, when she and April came on out of the bedroom.  
"I've recovered from worse," Calypso replied. "I'll be okay."  
"Come, child and sit," Splinter kindly gestured. "You are safe here."  
"How can I trust you, when I just met you?" Calypso pointed out.  
It was Leonardo who answered. "You agreed to go with Mikey to a safe spot, which was probably the first clue; then accepted April's help, when she opened the door to you."  
"Plus we could have done anything to cause you harm, while you were out cold," Raphael added on, his arms were crossed loosely across his body. "But we didn't."

Calypso also could not deny that her instincts were calm. No hints of any feelings that would override it.  
April went to the dining table and sat beside Donatello, leaving the empty place on the two seater couch for Calypso to take.  
"What is your name?" Splinter asked.  
"Calypso," the girl answered. "I do not know if it is my real name, for my majority of memory has been wiped away years and years ago."  
"And how old are you?"  
"Fourteen," Calypso said without having to think. "Stokes had me know my birth date." Her eyes shut and hands gripping the seat on either side of her.  
"Who is this Stokes?" asked Donatello.  
"Robert Stokes, the owner of Special Associated Resources of Helping the Environment, or SAROHE for short," Calypso replied; "Inherited all from his father and grandfather."

"Why were you running away from him?" asked Michelangelo.  
Calypso explains further; "Because I, along with a few others, escaped from his hidden laboratory that is on an island in the Pacific Ocean."  
"The Pacific Ocean?" Donatello speaks with some surprise. "That's many miles from here!"  
"How did you managed to get so far?" Raphael was quietly impressed.  
Calypso thought of the journey she had so far, saddened by it too.  
"We, my group and I, just figured out how to blend in as much as possible," was her answer.  
"So there are more of you?" Leonardo asked.

Calypso said in reply; "The other members of my group and I got separated somewhere in New Jersey, I was trying to find them and ended up in Manhattan. That's where Stokes and his Hired Help caught up with me. If Michelangelo hadn't stepped in, I may not be here talking to you."  
"How many of you were there in your group? And why were you getting away?" Leonardo continued to ask.  
"Seven of us managed to escape. Stokes …" Calypso stopped at this, not wanting to have the crack in her voice be heard. She took a deep breath and continued. "Stokes, and his crew, does some highly top secret, hush-hush experiments. So called illegal ones, but if you pay the governments to look the other way if it gets them what they want… along with whomever else has the goods…"  
"What sort of experiments?" Leonardo asked her.  
Calypso shook her head vigorously, her body stiffening a little.

"The kind that would make an ordinary, normal thinking person sick to the stomach, by the response Calypso is giving," Donatello concluded, his expression matching the tone of sympathy for the girl.  
"Is that why you have those cuts?" April asked.  
"Cuts?" Calypso was a little confused.  
"On each side of your body," said April.  
"They're not cuts, they're gills," Calypso said.  
"A human with gills?" Raphael looked at her.  
"She did state she was a form of hybrid, Raph," Donatello pointed out.  
"I was voicing my surprise is all," Raphael defended a little.  
"It's okay," Calypso told the Turtle in Red. "I would be, too, if I were normal."  
"And how am I normal?" Raphael asked.  
"We ask the same question about you, there, Raphie-boy," Michelangelo quipped, following it with a small chortle.  
Raphael glared at his younger brother.

"Are you full fledge turtles? Or rat? Or are you with other animals, as part of you?" asked Calypso, the Turtles and Splinter.  
"I was once an ordinary rat, while my sons were once ordinary turtles," Splinter told her. "We were doused in a chemical known as mutagen, which caused us to be as we are today. So the answer to your question is yes, we are fully fledged turtles and rat, only seemed to be more humanised because of the ooze."  
Calypso, now that she was given a little more of Splinter's and his Turtles' backstory, understood a little more, perhaps having her to conclude that they were 'normal', but not at the same time. It was a weird way for her to describe it, but it was the only way she was making sense of it.

"Would you have any sort of way of being able to contact your group?" Leonardo then decided to ask, thinking it would be beneficial to try and help.  
Calypso shook her head. "I really wouldn't know how. We all scattered in different directions when Stokes and his lot found us. I have no idea where they are, we were too busy concentrating on getting away… and for me later, running for dear life.  
"We all removed our tracking chips when we were on the getaway boat heading for one of the Hawaiian Islands, so going via satellite would be useless."  
"Plus it would have had you all captured a lot sooner," Donatello added, "Smart thinking to whoever came up with that idea."  
Calypso gave a small smile to agree.

"In the meantime, until we figure a way to help you and your group," Splinter went to say, "_Yes_, your group, too, when we are able to find them," he pressed gently to the girl's surprise, "I believe that we ought to ensure Calypso has a place to stay."  
"I couldn't -" Calypso went to say, only to be cut off by Raphael; "We're not having ya out there by yarself. Not with those goons still after ya. We have room."  
"She won't be going anywhere until I take her out shopping for much needed clothes," April put in.  
"Tomorrow night then," Splinter agreed. "If you accept our offer," turning to Calypso.  
"I do," said Calypso.  
"Then it's settled."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Short chapters" but these are the originals before finding where it needs to finally change for the better.


	4. 4

Chapter Four

As soon as they got back to the Lair, Donatello was straight to one of his many computers to switch it on – the Turtle had so many of them, one in the living area and one in his bedroom, and half a dozen more in his work area.

"Where are we gonna to put the girl while she's stayin' with us?" Raphael asked.  
"We do have a spare room, Raph," Leonardo reminded him.  
"Does she have to be right next ta Mikey?" Raphael surprisingly said.  
"What's wrong with that?" Michelangelo questioned frowning a little. "She would be across from your room!"  
"You both make it sound like she's actually sleeping with Mikey," said Donatello, spinning round in his leather office chair to look at his brothers, while still waiting for the computer to load up.

"Since when do I sleep with girls I just met?" said a puzzled Michelangelo.  
"I don't know … I wouldn't know what you do with your sex life," Donatello replied.  
"Can we move away from Mikey's appending sex life and focus on the situation at hand?" Leonardo asked, trying to be serious, with pained difficulty.  
Splinter pretended to not hear any of this, as he was heading over to where the small hallway was just off the living area.  
Up this way were four doors.

The first door to Splinter's left was a bathroom, which was pretty messy with towels and water stains and junk sprawled about the place.  
"First thing tomorrow morning, you will be having this bathroom cleaned, as well as the other two bathrooms," Splinter instructed his four sons, in firm voice; "Plus the spare room, too;" pointing at the last door to his right, after the first door, being Michelangelo's room, which would have Raphael's door, be the last one on the Master's left.

Splinter turned around to see if his boys had heard him, his dark eyes piercing.  
"Hai, Sensei," the four said in unison.  
"Good," said Splinter. "Michelangelo because of the reasons that have unfolded for your tardiness of getting home tonight, you will not be doing extra at training in the morning."  
Michelangelo was relieved to hear this. "Thank you, Sensei," he was humble too.

###

"I never thought I would ever be doing this."  
It was the next morning, April and Calypso were in a department store, looking at the clothing.  
"What shopping?" April replied.  
Calypso shook her head. "I've been stuck on an island for just over nine years. Then when we were on the run, we only got what we had to, so we could stay one step ahead of Stokes. Clothes for a luxury thought was far from our minds."  
"I'm sorry," said April with tone to match.  
"Don't be," said Calypso. "I'm just happy to be even wearing clothes at all."  
"What do you mean?"

Calypso chose to browse at some of the dresses beside her, not wanting to answer. April took the hint, and didn't push it any further.  
"What about the rest of the people in your group?" she then asked. "Are there others apart from you?"  
Calypso pulled out a really nice pale orange and turquoise floral dress, with three quarter sleeves and v-neck. The corners of her mouth turned up a little looking at it.  
"There are others still on the island," she replied to April's question. "All eighteen of us tried to get away. But, as you know, seven were lucky … if you can call it that." Her lips pressed at this, suppressing the sorrow as best as she could.  
"What are their names? The ones you got away with?"

Calypso thought for a moment, deciding that she ought to go by her instinct, and looked at April.  
"The names of the six who I was with were Arachne, Horus, Lucifer, Morrigan, Odin and Sandalphon," Calypso told her. "All eighteen of us were given names derived from the different forms of mythologies, ancient legends and biblical faiths. Stokes believed that we had to have names that befitted who we were. Never mind the history of some of the names and who they belonged to once."  
"Is that why you thought Michelangelo and Raphael were from Archangels?" April asked.  
"Yes," said Calypso, to about place the dress still in her hand back.  
"You ought to try it on," April suggested. She had noticed Calypso's face when she saw it.

It took a bit to convince Calypso to take a few more items she appeared to like to see if they all fit; a little longer for her to actually enjoy the experience.  
"How about we go for lunch?" April suggested. "What do you fancy?"  
"I know I like seafood …?" Calypso replied with hesitation, also thinking. _'If only she knew.'_  
"Cool, I know where we can get some of the best seafood in this area," April said, with an encouraging grin.

###

"Welcome to the Den of the Turtles," Michelangelo said with a mix cheeky and genuine kindness, when April and Calypso entered the Lair, carrying bags and a few boxes of their shopping adventure.  
Calypso couldn't hold back the small, shy smile.  
"Down Mikey!" Donatello joked, from his desk.  
"What?" Michelangelo put his hands to either side of him.

Splinter, Leonardo and Raphael all entered from the archway that connected to the rest of the Lair.  
"Find out anything?" April asked Donatello.  
"You know me," Donatello grinned.  
April laughs lightly; "That's why I asked."  
"Come, child, let me show you to where you would be staying for while you are with us," Splinter offered.  
"Here, let me get that," Raphael said, taking the two bags and box from April.  
"Thank you, Raph," said April, and then went over to Donatello to see what was on the computer screen.  
"While I'll take these," said Michelangelo, taking the two boxes and one bag from Calypso.

Calypso caught Leonardo face-palming, before going with Splinter, Michelangelo and Raphael to the spare room.  
"What has gotten into those two?" April dared to ask the Turtle in Purple.  
"It's not just them," Donatello answered. "Only Leo and I seem to be having a bit more control."  
"Come again?" April made a small face of confusion.  
"Cannot really explain it," Donatello told her truthfully. "Let's just say, things are going to become really interesting very soon. Moving on, however, I found out a little more about this Stokes person." He got out of the chair, offering it to his good friend, by which she accepted.

Upon the screen was a very handsome looking man with piercing grey eyes and dark hair. His tanned complexion seemed to give him this godlike effect. Wearing his splendid grey suit and simple blue tie.  
"Is he trying to be the next Christian Grey?" April commented.  
Donatello gives her a look of confusion. "The next who?"  
April shook her head; "Don't worry."  
"He's the man people would see him as, if they were to look up on the SAROHE website," Donatello said, brushing the comment off. "Claims to have a love for the environment and has done heaps to help various projects that are going on. Even got help to bring out a brand of beauty and hygiene stuff for humans and animals."  
"So, he's got a nice front to keep what we've learned about the wannabe Christian Grey," Leonardo spoke, he was now standing on the other side of April.

April shot the blue bandanna wearing turtle a shocked expression. "You read Fifty Shades of Grey?"  
Leonardo shrugged. "It was an interesting read."  
"And what makes you think he is like the character?"  
"Didn't say I did," said Leonardo, raising a brow.  
"I think it's because of what we found out about what he actually does. The stuff he doesn't want the general world public to know," Donatello answered, he looked at his older brother and April. "How the hell Calypso even survived –"  
"Survived what?"

They all turned around to see Calypso, Raphael, Michelangelo and Splinter were all back in the living room.  
"Stokes and his experiments," Donatello said outright, though with concern.  
"How did you …?" Calypso went to ask.  
"Donny is well known to figure out how to hack into almost any system created, which we did mention before," Raphael said, sitting on the larger of the two couches in the room, Michelangelo taking the other one.  
"What did you find?" Calypso asked, rather nervous.  
"Only a couple of files," Donatello said. "Just on Stokes and a few of the tests he's done to you and your friends."  
"That's all you've found?"  
"At the moment," said Donatello, sounding somewhere between confident and frustrated; frustrated because he only got access to two, but hopeful, because it meant that he might be able to get access to more of them if he works it right. "Hopefully with a bit more digging, I'll get the clues to help us track your friends down."

Calypso nodded a little.  
"Cool," she said lightly, though unsure how to really feel about this.  
"Did you really have to see how long it took for you to freeze close to death?" April asked, reading the screen in front of her.  
"That was one of the very rare tests he's done to us. Once every like … two … two and a half years."  
"What was he testing for?"  
"Find out who is like to try and actually hibernate. What the cold-blooded ones would do. Or because he thought it was hilarious at one point."  
"So, what are you a hybrid of?" Donatello cautiously and curiously asked. "If some of you have cold-blood? If you don't mind my asking."  
"I'd rather not answer that right now if you don’t mind," Calypso said in return.

"And we _will_ respect that request," Splinter emphasised before Donatello could say any more.  
April looked at her watch. "I'll have to head on out, now. I'm expecting a customer in less than an hour," she said. "I may not be in tomorrow, but I'll see what I can find out on my end."  
"See you later, April," said the Turtles.  
Calypso just smiled and thanked her for the good day out, which April told her to not worry about it, before leaving.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part of me kind of realised that I could have had Calypso staying at April's place. But at the same time, with Stokes still hanging about, it made sense to have her hidden in the Turtles' Lair


	5. 5

Chapter Five

With his fist pounding the desk with frustration, Robert Stokes _did not_ want to hear what he was just told.  
"How the actual _fuck_ did you lose track of her?" he snarled at Duke and Victor, who were standing on the other side of the desk.  
They were in the office of his penthouse; a room that was almost entirely glass windows in clean geometrical designs, with a large desk in the middle, the office chair Stokes was sitting in, two other chairs on the other side of the desk, where Victor and Duke were standing behind; a leather couch to the side, with small table and a television. On the other side, taking up the wall was a mix of a liquor cabinet, bookshelves and displays.

"You should have told us about the venom in her spit," Duke said, with his fish like face displaying an expression that made him look more like a sourpuss. His watery looking eyes were still a little bloodshot, but else wise recovered just fine.  
Stokes gave his henchman non-sympathetic expression of ‘are you some kind of stupid’ before telling him in a voice laced with rile; "She's part _fucking_ cobra, Duke! Surely you should have remembered about those types of snakes having a venomous spit!”  
"Why do want her so badly, Rob?" Victor asked. "Shouldn't we be concentrating on getting the others?"  
"Yeah? I mean, aren't Arachne and Morrigan just as important?" Duke pointed out. "As would the males be?"  
Stokes rubbed his chin with his hand, thinking for a moment.

"Arachne and Morrigan are important for the next phase, yes. But Calypso … I've worked _so hard_ on her, above all of them, to not just _lose her_. Why else would I have ordered you to follow her over the others, when they decided to scatter?"  
"Well … maybe if that chump didn't come in and help her?" Victor voiced.  
"Did we even get a good look at the guy?" Duke quizzed, now thinking about it.  
"I thought I saw an outline, but that was seconds before he attacked me with the trash can lid," Stokes recalled, still rubbing his chin.  
"What do you propose we do?" Duke asked.

Stokes thought for a moment. "Duke, I am putting you in charge of getting a team together to find the six. They might even be looking for Calypso, and we know they ought to be within the New Jersey and New York area. Start in the place we found them before they split up. Remember to take photos. Make something up if people start asking questions that are likely to pop up, you know the drill."  
"Yes, Mr Rob, sir," Duke promptly replied, standing straight.  
"As for you, Victor, call back to Stokes Isle, if you please," Stokes instructed the other of his closest workmen. "See to that everything is still going as planned and on standby for when things are ready to carry on to the next phase."  
"Yes, Rob. But what of Calypso?"

"I'll stay here," Stokes answered. "With the injuries she sustained, she wouldn't have gotten far. The girl needs to go into that healing comatose she does to repair herself. That person who helped her get away may have got her checked into a hospital, so I'll start there."  
"What do we do when we catch the others?" asked Duke.  
"Take them to the New York SAROHE branch and contact me _after_ you've put them in detainment. Even if you just manage to catch just one of them," Stokes ordered. "Now, get out of my fucking sight!"

Dutifully, Duke and Victor straightened up, and then made their leave.  
Stokes watched them, then went back to his open laptop screen.  
"Where are you?" he asked the video of Calypso he had up.  
Within the video, Calypso was swimming deep within water, the gills on each side allowing her breath freely while under, no need to go up for air. Her amber parts of her eyes aglow, and wearing only a single skirt and nothing else.  
Stokes wanted her back!  
He thought of this as he continued to watch the video, and began to undo the zipper and belt of his pants...

###

Leonardo saw Calypso in the kitchen the very next morning. He was usually mostly the first one up, except for whenever one of his brothers pulls an all nighter, and even then.  
She was just sitting at the table, with two glasses. One with water, the other with juice. Her head propped with one hand, the other holding the glass with water in it. But she wasn't drinking out of it. She was just staring into space.

"Good morning," he said.  
Calypso looked at him, it was then he noticed her top canines looked like they were longer than he remembered seeing them the night before.  
"What's with the teeth?"  
"Oh!" Calypso seemingly to not have realised until mentioned. The teeth 'shrank' back into looking like ordinary human teeth, only now, with a better look, were a lot sharper in appearance.  
"So you have fangs, too?"  
Leonardo went to the fridge, opening it and grabbed two small tubs of yoghurt. He offered one Calypso, which she declined.

"Are there any wings we don't know about yet?" he said light-heartedly.  
"No. I wasn't given wings," Calypso replied, confused by his words.  
Leonardo sat next to her. "I was having a joke."  
Calypso smiled softly, then looked down to her the glass in her hand.  
Leonardo analysed her quietly.  
Her the blue and purple in her hair were not as faint as they were before. The scales around her wrist were also starting to show colour of olive green and soft purple, instead of fair. She was wearing a simple pair of pants and T-shirt.

"So … what's your favourite colour?" Leonardo decided to ask.  
"Of all the questions to ask a girl, you go for that one?" said Raphael, coming in.  
"I never really thought of a colour as being a favourite," Calypso admitted. "I guess I've always liked colours as a whole, not single."  
"Like a rainbow?" asked Leonardo.  
"Yeah."  
"But if you were to pick a single colour?" Raphael thought it would be a good idea to continue with this, as he sat himself down with some fruit, and started peeling a banana.

Calypso shook her head at this. "If I were Arachne … or even Metatron … or any of the others, I would have given you a clear answer. I'm the only one who doesn't seem to single out a single colour to favour as my own."  
"Who are Arachne and Metatron? We know they were part of you group, but are you able to tell us a little more about them?" Leonardo asked, as the other Turtles and Splinter came into the kitchen and dining area.

Calypso began; "Arachne has been with me from the very start of my being on Stoke's Isle. We were both five years old, in the same cell together, we didn't learn of the older ones until about a week later. Because of it, we've been very close, like sisters, I guess.  
"Metatron is Sandalphon's twin; Sandy was the one with me in New Jersey, unfortunately Tron was snatched just before he could get to the escape boat. We don't know exactly what has happened to him, only that we know he's still alive, as they are able to communicate somehow to each other, though they're in different locations. Including pain."

"I've read that somewhere that twins, especially identical ones, are able to just know when the other is feeling a different emotion to their own. Some even mimic that emotion," said Donatello.  
"I have heard of that, too, and have witnessed it many times," Calypso admits with a tiny nod.  
"You say you don't remember anything prior to being with SAROHE. Is that the same with the others?" Leonardo asked.

Calypso shook her head at this and felt compelled to explain more, feeling that she was still safe to do so. "Each of us came into Stokes's hands in various ways, but all ended up having the same treatment. Lucifer came up with the theory that the reason why we may have forgotten who we were, was because of our ages at the time. However, some of us were born on the island itself.  
"I'm the only one who really has absolutely no clue, not even a hint of whom I was, even Arachne has vague ideas of her life before Stokes Isle. My memory started in that cell room, with Arachne. I had a blank slate. Stokes reckoned that I died or something. But won't say any further than that.  
"Even the others have some form of a fogged up disconnected memory of sorts. I have nothing."  
Her tone was of pain and feeling robbed.

"We can help you find out who you were. I've nearly cracked the needed codes to break into the mainframe to the SAROHE database. I have been getting the odd file or two, so I know I'm close," Donatello was quite proud of this.  
Calypso didn't quite show the same form of enthusiasm. Michelangelo noticed this.  
"In the meantime, practice," Splinter instructed.  
"Hai, Sensei," said the Turtles.  
"You're welcome to come into the dojo," the Ninja Master then said to Calypso.  
Calypso, unable to think of anything else to do, accepted, but waited until they were out of the kitchen.  
Michelangelo hung back, however.

"Is there anything you're worried about Donny finding?" he cautiously asked.  
"What makes you say that?" Calypso didn't make eye contact.  
"Your expression when he said he was close to getting into the big mother load of information."  
"Think nothing of it," she said, trying to brush it off.  
"Perhaps, when you're ready, you'd like to talk about it?"  
Calypso smiled at his sincerity. "Perhaps …"


	6. 6

Chapter Six

"Why are you not letting me in?" Donatello grumbled at the laptop.  
He was in his work area – a pretty large room, not as large as the Lair's dojo, being almost half the size, but it was still big. All of the computers and laptops were on in here. He had been so close to cracking the code earlier, only to get blocked. Every attempt now has been almost as futile as the other tries he's done.

"Donny, are you hungry?" asked Michelangelo, coming in holding a tray of food and drink.  
Donatello turned and saw his brother; "Oh, thanks Mikey. Just set it there."  
Michelangelo put the tray on the desk, with some space for Donatello to still move his arm about.  
Just then, after some pressing of the keys and whatever the Purple wearing Turtle was doing, the screen changed;  
"I'm in!" Donatello cried out, his face lit up from his success.  
"Really?" Michelangelo asked, pulling up a chair and sitting next to his brother.

Donatello moved to click on the file named 'Calypso', and the links appeared. Then clicked on the very first of them.  
Upon the screen, Robert Stokes appeared, sitting behind a desk;  
"The following recordings and data information collected is on the test subject Calypso. My most prized work of all that I, and my most trusted handpicked team, have done.  
"Calypso, born Friday, 30 June 2000, via the accomplished implantation of a test subject human egg, infused with a few enhancements, that couldn't have been done without the work of mutagen and a few other helpful ingredients, into a turtle egg. Though highly aware of the approximate three centimetre size, we were extremely amazed on just how successful such an achievement had taken place."

The screen changed from Stokes to some recording of this implantation he was talking about. From the outside, where Stokes and a very tiny team of other scientists, were all around this golf ball size egg was resting on some table, to, by via some sort of ultrasound means, the actual insinuation. Following with a few recordings of this tiny embryo of sorts growing within.

"What the …?" Michelangelo was the first to voice the shock between him and Donatello.  
Donatello promptly stopped the link and placed his face in his hands, elbows on the desk. "Doesn't fully explain the first five years of no memory," he pointed out, by doing the quick calculation in his head, followed by, without voicing it to Michelangelo. _'But … can explain why we are all seemingly attracted to her … not that she appears to be aware of it …'_  
Throughout the entire month of Calypso being with them, the Turtle boys have been doing their best to fight off any urges, or not fighting them at all in several cases, to court the girl.

"Is that a turtle egg?" Raphael's voice came from behind them.  
Still on the screen was the paused recording of the turtle egg and embryo.  
"Yes Raph," Donatello answered, seeing that there was no other way to explain the screen contents.  
"What's the thing beside it?"  
"Calypso," Michelangelo replies. "Before she was born."  
Raphael's head moved back a little, staring at the screen. "How …?"  
"Even I haven't a clue," said Donatello.

"Should we tell Caly about this? Or Splinter?" asked Raphael.  
"Probably talk to Splinter and Leonardo, before we talk to Calypso," said the Turtle in Purple.  
"But … shouldn't she be allowed to know?" Michelangelo asked, looking at each of his brothers.  
Donatello thought for a moment before answering; "I think its best that we withhold this for now. Just until we can find out some more."  
"It's not like we're not gonna to tell her at all, bro," Raphael backed when he and Donatello saw Michelangelo's try for a debate.  
Michelangelo stopped, but his expression was plain as day. He didn't like this idea. But he agreed … for now …

###

Calypso slipped out of bed and out of her room. It was late at night and she really needed a glass of water.  
She had just filled the glass up when she heard argumentative voices coming from down the hallway to the rest of the Lair.  
"Mikey, it's for her own good!" Leonardo tried to reason.  
"Tell me a good reason why she oughtn't to know the first five years of her life?"  
"Because, she's still young!" Splinter answered. From the tone of his voice, Calypso could sense that the rat simply wanted to look out for her welfare and explain whatever it was they were arguing over to her at a later date.

Calypso crept to the archway and peered around. The voices were coming from the left of the entry, where Donatello's work area was.  
"She's two years younger than we are! How is that any different? Plus you have never held back our origin, Master!"  
"That was different, Michelangelo," said Splinter.  
Calypso was now just near the door.  
"She deserves to know!"  
"Michelangelo, I forbid you to tell Calypso about anything of what we have seen from the first few files we've seen! This could be very detrimental to her, and I won't allow it!" Splinter's voice was very firm and clear.

"You know what? I'm outta here! I cannot believe that you, of all people, Master, that you would actually agree to this whole bullshit of keeping something that maybe extremely important from the very person who should have all rights to _her own_ memory!"  
"_Michelangelo!_" both Splinter and the other Turtles said, mixed voices of shock and disapproval  
Michelangelo came near storming out and saw Calypso standing right there. Instead of giving her away, the Orange wearing Turtle just gently coaxed her to turn around and went to head toward the kitchen dining area; just as Leonardo appeared at the door, seeing Calypso with his youngest brother.  
"Mikey!"

Calypso turned around and face the Blue wearing Turtle, speaking very strongly and not withholding how upset she was in what she had just heard; "I appreciate what you seem to believe is protecting me. But I am tired of secrets! If there is something that I should know, why not tell me?"  
Splinter appeared next to Leonardo, his voice in truthful care. “It is not that we do not want you to know, Calypso. Everyone deserves to know of their self history, including you. Though some of us have different views on what that aspect may be.”  
The Father Rat makes a small gesture of acknowledgement to Michelangelo. He still didn’t approve of the tone that was taken out by his youngest son, but hadn’t dismissed the belief behind it.

“For this entire month we have gotten to know you, seen the affects of what that place you’ve been to have done to you, and us helping you to heal. I do not want to set you back, for some of what we had witnessed might be too horrific for you to know just yet. My concern is for your wellbeing, in all aspects.”  
“But... can’t I just know something of what happened to me?” Calypso didn’t want to come off as ungrateful for the sentiments for her wellbeing, or even flat out pleading; yet for a very long time she had been denied way too much on who she was and why she was the way she was. “Please?”

Splinter still did not want her to see what he and his Turtles had seen, but in his deepest heart, he knew that keeping what that had learned from Calypso would be more detrimental in the long run. He had grown to care for this girl, much to where she’s got a place within the clan, whether it was accidental or meant to be, or however it worked out to be, and all he wanted for her was the best.

Perhaps Michelangelo was correct in voicing his point of view in this matter, the Father Rat thought to himself, seeing this young girl before him.  
“Come,” he decides to say. “I will not reveal everything, but enough for you to understand a little more.”

###

The ring sound of the bell on top of the door, had April look around to see who may have come into her store.

A tall young man, with features that had him look like a bird, from his sharp nose; olive complexion and his hands looked like eagle's claws. He was wearing a light brown over-sized leather jacket coat, slightly torn jeans, converse shoes and no shirt; and was accompanied by a teenage girl, close to being about Calypso's age from April's small assessment. Looked to the be roughly the same height at the girl she met and gotten to know a month before. This girl, however, had much longer hair that was black with red streaks and darkened skin. She was wearing a tartan patterned pleat skirt and shirt and black boots. Over her eyes was a pair of shades.

"Hello," April greeted. "How may I help you?"  
"We're trying to find our friend," said the young male. "We got separated a little while ago and we've been looking for her since."  
"Not sure how I can be of assistance," April admitted with truth.  
"Please? It's of real importance!" the girl insisted. "We've been asking almost all over on any possible trails, and have come up trumps."

They came closer to the registry desk.  
"Perhaps if you described your friend to me, I might be able to answer whether I have seen her or not," April thought of this being a good idea to find a way to try and help these two.  
"Well, she's fourteen …" the young man started off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This might end up being the last of what is the original chapters, the rest will be bits and pieces of the original mashed in with newer addition/refresh.


	7. 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Splinter gives Calypso a small bit of insight of what he and his Turtles had found out

Chapter Seven

The Father Rat’s living area was perhaps the largest of the rooms, where it was perfectly divided up into sections that fit his style. Splinter had escorted Calypso to the quiet corner just off of his sleeping area, where a little table and sitting cushions were neatly arranged.

Calypso had been in here twice before, whenever either she needed some solace from a ‘parenting figure’ or Splinter wished to speak with her in privacy if he felt the need.

“I do hope you will not think ill will of us for wanting to see to your wellbeing, Calypso,” he starts off saying, once they were comfortable.  
At this Calypso shook her head, her expression matching the words that followed in her reply;

“It’s not that, Splinter, I can assure you. It’s more...” she stops for a moment trying to find her words to explain better. “For the entirety of my life upon Stokes Isle, I wasn’t even allowed to know a single thing about myself. Yet, I am the very reason why the escape was even planned at all. Not once would anyone elaborate on why they needed me out of there, not even well after the escape. Then there is well before that, if there was any suspicion of anyone letting me know of anything, punishments were given, and not just on my friends, they were place on me, too.

“It’s like the so called escape to freedom didn’t change much, either, because, once again, no-one was willing to talk to me of why I even exist. My own best friend, Arachne, wouldn’t speak to me about it. The only information I was ever allowed was when I was born. That’s it, nothing else.

“The many times I’ve been kept isolated from the others because I was, according to Stokes, very special, and not like the others... yet never permitted to know why, like I don’t have that privilege to know who I am.”

Splinter could see she understood where he may have been coming from, and perhaps the Turtles who sided with him over Michelangelo, but at the same time there was deep frustration and hurt within Calypso’s voice as she spoke.

His voice kept to the comforting gentle care with slight firm; “The intention wasn’t to never allow you to learn, Calypso, please understand this. I have mentioned that I did not want to send you back from where you were when you first started living with us, when you would always be asking for food or other basic needs, as though I was somehow your keeper of sorts.

“As well as the times where you would waking up screaming and lashing out at anyone who tried to come near you, believing you were going to be harmed. Even without the nightmare memories within your sleep, it’s the ones during your waking hours. Trusting us with the dealings you’ve gone through to help you.”  
“But, I want to know, Splinter, too much has been kept from me, and I am tired of it,” Calypso returns.

The Mutant Rat knew then and there that it wouldn’t be fair to keep what he had learned from the girl any longer.

“You were given the name of Calypso not by Robert Stokes, as you were perhaps led to believe,” Splinter began. “Instead the name was given to you by someone who is believed to be your birth parent, for lack of better way of putting it. He was very adamant on being present since they did something that I would rather you not learn as of yet, as it was not a pleasant display sit through, but I can tell you that you were both lucky to have survived.”

Calypso would have liked to have been told what Splinter, and the Turtles, had seen, but she did not protest with Splinter’s choosing to not give detail right then and there, for this was truly something that might need to wait a little longer.

“When you say ‘he’...?” she does go to ask.

“I cannot explain, as my knowledge in such things is very limited, but when I say ‘he’, I mean you came from the womb of a male, instead of a female, before being placed inside a turtle’s egg. Donatello has theories, but it is something we are very unfamiliar with. By no means does this affect how we feel or see on things, just something of a learning point,” Splinter honestly tells her.

“I understand,” said Calypso, nodding. She bit her lower lip for a moment before asking. “Did... did he have a name? My... um?”  
“We heard the name Severus being mentioned,” Splinter answers.

Calypso went into some form of deep thought for a moment, as though something tiny just sparked...  
“Calypso?” she hears the concerned Father Rat, causing the girl to shake her head, brushing this sudden flicker away.  
“Am... am I allowed in knowing... um...” she struggled with her wording.  
“Take your time, Calypso,” Splinter still had the gentle in his tone.  
She gives a small upturn of the side of her lips showing appreciation.  
“Am I allowed to know what he looks like?” she finally found the words she wanted to say. “My birth parent? Please?”  
He could not deny her this one. “I will see to it that Donatello gets you a photo.”  
Calypso then remembered; “You said I was placed inside a turtle’s egg? How...?”

Splinter shakes his head gently. “I unsure how they have accomplished such a feat, only that it took a great deal of strain on you and your biological parent to survive such a brutal separation for whatever gain this Stokes person and his crew were aiming for.”  
“Is... is he... is he alive? Is he alive still?”

The Father Rat could see just how much more she wanted to know about herself. Unfortunately, he had to shake his head with regret.  
“We do not know, Calypso. Donatello is still working through what he has managed to break into to get the information, and making sure they’re all saved so it is not lost in case of any trouble he might run into retrieving it,” he gives her with honestly. “Yet at the same time, I would wish for you to wait a little longer to find out any more, just based on what we had found.”  
“Why not tell me now?”

Splinter placed a gentle hand on top of Calypso’s; “Please trust in knowing that you will learn, only for now, it would be best if you were as mentally prepared as possible for when you do.”  
Hearing the genuine care, and not once sensed him to ever be false with her, Calypso accepted this.  
“Thank you, Splinter, for giving me something at least to help me learn who I am,” she does say.  
“It is my pleasure,” Splinter returns with a humble and warm smile.

###

“Hi, April, what’s up?” Leonardo asks when his turtle-com vibrated.

“I thought it best to call and get Calypso to come here, rather than me coming to you. There are two people, or mutants, I don’t know, in my shop, they both described Calypso perfectly and saying that they were looking for her, asking for me help. At this point I am in the back room, they’re still in my shop, I’ve asked them a bunch of questions, and they’ve answered well enough, but I don’t know if I ought to be trusting them, or not,” April explains.

“What do they look like?”  
“One is a male who looks like a bird of prey and the other is a girl, about Caly’s age and really dark skin.”  
“Anything else?” Donatello asks, as he was overhearing the conversation.  
“Only that I do not want to lead them to the Lair, I am not even comfortable with the bird guy in my shop, and this is coming from someone who has Foot Soldiers and whatever else coming in and out,” April does say.

“We will see if we can bring Calypso by as soon as possible, see if they’re willing to wait,” Leonardo suggests.  
“I will try, Leo, but as I said, my gut feels like something is off.”  
“Duly noted, we will be there as fast as possible.”

###

Calypso was escorted to Second Time ’Round, where April greeted her, along with Leonardo and Raphael.  
It was agreed that there was no need for the entire Turtle clan to go, it allowed for Donatello to keep digging and Michelangelo opted to stay in the Lair with him and Splinter.

However when Calypso peeped through the doorway that connected between the back of the shop, (where an alleyway entry was), and to the front of the shop, the girl’s expression and body language was rather rigid.

“I don’t want him to know I am here,” she mutters, to April and the Turtles. “Arachne, however, get her away from him!”  
“Who is he?” Raphael.

Calypso’s voice was in a hushed tone. “His name is Elrik. Arachne would not have gone with him willingly. He is someone I’d rather stay away from, because he has the ability to fog your mind if he gets the chance to, or able to, depending on who the victim is, as he can’t penetrate through everyone; plus he didn’t escaped with us, that’s why I want Arachne away from him.”

Going on a sudden idea, April re-entered the shop front, where Elrik and Arachne were still waiting.  
“Sorry about that, I had to double check an order that had been put on hold for a customer I am expecting to arrive in a little while,” she speaks without hesitation or giveaway.

Elrik raised his eyebrows at this. “How many times does it take to double check on an item? You must be hiding something in regards to our request for your help in locating our friend.”  
“A lot of people have a desire for antiques, and I have explained to you that I have no idea who this girl is,” April replies casually, doing her best to not falter.  
“Yet, you were talking to someone!”  
It was at this moment the clanking sound of the bell above the shop’s door rang and in entered a tall and muscular male with dark shoulder length hair, wearing track pants and shirt.

“Hey, April,” he says.  
“Mr Jones, right on time!” April chimes.

Before Casey could give her a look of confusion, he sees the smallest gesture that clued him to play along, as he could see the two strangers standing there. One of them male and looking tall and birdlike, while the other was a dark skinned girl with black hair that had red streaks in it.

“Well, I did promise I’d be by today,” he goes to say.  
“Your package is right back here,” April moves her hand toward the doorway she had come from. “I had to make sure it was safely stored, as a good few were really eyeing it before you made your purchase on it.”

Casey follows April, simply replying with; “I’m sure they were; it’s a one of a kind that would have been real sweet to have.”  
April excused the pair again, she could see how antsy Elrik was becoming, and finally seeing what Calypso was saying about the girl with him, she didn’t seem to be in her own mind for lack of better describing it.  
It was when they reached through the doorway did Casey understand a little of why he was bought back here.

“Okay, what is going on?”  
Casey had met Calypso a few days after she was housed with the Turtles, so knows of her story.  
“We need your help,” Leonardo begins.


	8. 8

Chapter Eight

It amazed them all to see Elrik and Arachne still in the antique shop, except Calypso explaining how the mutant had an irritating knack for hanging around making for an uncomfortable atmosphere.

First Casey walked out of the back area holding a golf club, thanking April, (who was close behind), and going on how he was glad to have gotten the club, which confused Elrik.

As Casey was just walking past, without any warning, he swung the wooden club...

The moment Elrik was seeing flashing lights before his eyes from having his head smacked, a puff of smoke appeared almost out of nowhere, making it even more difficult for the mutant to comprehend what was going on, forcing him to run out of Second Time ’Round.

When he had stopped running, he had discovered that Arachne was no longer with him, instead she was back at the little corner shop snapping out of whatever spell Elrik had her under, and being reunited with Calypso.

When Elrik returned, April acted like she had no idea what had happened, being all distressed on how she had been left shaken by what had happened and had to call the police. The very mention of the boys in blue had Elrik quickly apologise, saying that he wasn’t going to cause trouble and left in haste, as if being clobbered by a golf club and losing his companion was nothing to fuss over all of a sudden.

Needless to say, Arachne was glad to be ridden of the creep.

“Stokes was that determined to have you back, he decided to try and use me as bait not long after he had me captured, instead of taking me back to the island facility,” she explained to Calypso. “Elrik was more than happy to help in finding you.”

“Of course he was,” Calypso said flatly.  
“Well, you’re safe now. To make sure it stays that way, you may as well stay with us,” Leonardo tells Arachne.  
“Are you sure?” Arachne asks with some uncertainty.  
“It wouldn’t be offered if we weren’t,” Raphael points out.  
With Calypso confirming that the Turtles were serious, the girl agrees to the proposal of a safe place.

###

Lurching right up, cold sweat beaded his skin, breathing heavily laboured as the images were still planted within his inner vision, remnants of the dream he had just forced himself awake from.

Sadly, for him, it wasn’t any mere dream; it was a nightmare of a memory; one of the many hellish one that forever haunt him. Not just within his mind, but reminders upon his body.

His eyes travelling down to a scar that was upon his abdomen, just where the pelvis line began; causing him to screw his eyelids closed tightly, breathing in deeply, recalling of when they forced him on that operation bed, putting all the right stuff into him to keep him conscious, silent and numbing his lower body.

He was forced to witness them cutting into him, going for the prized embryos he had been able to create after he was injected with enough semen and whatever to get him to produce viable eggs to create them in the first place.

Seven embryos were taken, all of them delicately placed into different sized eggs, ranging from tennis ball sized to the obvious ostrich egg.

This was their third attempt in this experiment; where he successfully became impregnated once again and reaching week the ‘crucial’ eighth week and having any and all embryos ripped out of him.

It tore at him every time he recalls those moments; all because he was born with the ability to bear children, a quality that was seen as a prize among certain communities, both Wizard and certain Muggles, (with the right connections), alike. Double that if the male has particular genetics that are not completely human.

To put it simply put it, Severus Snape was one of a handful of Wizards who was not only a male bearer, but one who was with a mutated bloodline that was one of the reasons he had found himself captured by those people and...

He covers his face with his hands, feeling his body shake, the tears starting to escape.

After everything they had done to him, only one of those embryos in that last attempt made it to what may as well be classed as term. Though it had only been three months since she was taken out of him and put into that tennis ball sized turtle egg.

It was a shock to him that they even allowed him to care for the precious eggs they shoved his developing children into, but they didn’t want to appear ‘inhumane’ and ‘without concern for the wellbeing of mother and young’; oh the irony of those words; because they weren’t so thoughtful to when he bore his first, or his second.

Severus can remember watching his daughter hatch, seeing her to be no bigger than a Cornish Pixie, which is about 18 centimetres, or 7 and half inches. It was beyond his understanding on how she was even able to survive the transition, let alone past that and grow, ‘be born’ and find the fight to want to live.

She was the only one he was allowed to raise without too much interference, even with certain obligations. He was the one who gave her her name, Calypso. He was the one who held her close, fight any time they wanted to take her from him, for he believed they wouldn’t give her back.

Then, one day, with no warning, Severus was no longer allowed to be in any form of contact with his child. His heart broke as when they showed him footage to what they had done.

“Why?” he asked them.

“In a year or so she’ll be likely to start showing the need to find a mate. Since you’re able to produce sperm, as well as eggs, it would be too good to see what would come of such a union between you. We just had to make sure she doesn’t know who you are, so we scrambled her memory,” it was told to him, leaving a feeling of disgust and horror to what they were suggesting; or rather, wanting to do.

That was his daughter, and they wanted him to...  
Just the thought... it still sickens him.

Unbeknown to them, it was he who planted the seeds and helped to orchestrate the getaway. He couldn’t go through on what they had planned, nor allow his own child to suffer what many had before her.

In truth, he couldn’t stand the suffering of anyone in that place.

It hurt knowing that he was here, ‘safe and sound’, while unknowing on what has happened to the ones who managed to escape, including his daughter. But at the same time glad, for he would know if any had been recaptured.

He could only hope that with the amount of time away from the SAROHE would help his daughter’s scrambled memory banks. As it turns out, they had been messing with her memory for years, making her forget certain events that have happened, but at some point, she would always ‘repair’ those missing pieces, like there was some part of her brain that just wasn’t going to allow for things to stay away, no matter how many times they would try and erase things.

Severus wanted to believe that he passed that natural skill on to her; for he was born with the ability of what Wizards call Legilimency and Occlumency, as well as this shield from any memory erasing attacks. Meaning, even if they did obliviate him, the memory would reconstruct itself, how long depended on the powerfulness of the charms or potions.

Still shaking, Severus looks at the time, it would be a few hours before dawn would break, yet he knew going back to sleep wasn’t likely; so he pushes the covers off of his legs and get out of the bed; the coolness hitting his naked skin as he made his way to the bathroom.

He didn’t stop to think as he lifted the toilet seat and began to empty his bladder; small blessings of middle of the night wake up calls.

After, Severus goes and turns on the shower and welcomes the droplets pelting him, drenching him from head to toe. Relief to his own set of gills. Gills he was born with; along with other... differences...

His mother did everything she could to protect him, she had even gone as far as ensuring the man she had married never laid a single hand on her son. Severus remembers those early days of his upbringing; learning the truth when he was just days after turning fourteen, when he found himself with a fellow Hogwarts student, in the room of requirements...

A set of arms snake around his waist, lips press against the nape of his neck.  
Severus closes his eyes at this.  
“I had hoped that I didn’t wake you,” he says in a near whisper.

“You didn’t at first, however I believe I sensed your change, so it must have prompted me to wake and come to you,” he is told by the owner of the arms holding him closely, before feeling another gentle kiss, and another. “Talk to me.”

Severus bit his lower lip, almost not wanting to utter a word, only for his voice to defy him;  
“Calypso.”

He feels himself being turned around, (he didn’t protest this), until he was facing the other man. The other man he had first mated with, the one who consequently became his mate for life as a result; even after learning of certain secrets, and then enduring torture not long after... in that place... Stokes Isle... where they both...

The water from the showerhead was pouring equally down his delicious leanly muscled out frame, the scars making him more irresistible, (to Severus he was).

“We did the right thing Severus,” the other man says, hand under Severus’s chin, getting him to move his gaze up.

Severus sees the amber and blue eyes of Remus Lupin, the eyes Calypso had inherited, looking back into his black and violet.

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because, even with her memory scattered, we raised her, we know she had been regaining snippets before her escape, that was a year and a half ago, had she still been back there, and we be forced to return to complete what was intended, and you and I both know the dire circumstances if she were to ever be recaptured.  
“So long as Calypso is out of their hands, the more it pisses them off, knowing they can’t do anything.”

“What is to stop them from trying to enforce another pregnancy?” Severus replies to this. “Dumbledore -”  
“Cannot do jack-shit,” Remus finishes for his mate, with a tiny smirk and a glint in his eye.  
Severus frowns with curious confusion. “What did you do?”

“Let’s just say, he made a grave mistake for pinning you for ousting me, after shit hit the fan that night just before the school year ended a couple of months ago,” says Remus. He stops Severus from looking away. “You and I both know it wasn’t you who told your Slytherins about my being a werewolf... also knowing that I am more than just any ordinary werewolf.”

“I still feel guilty about that night, Remus. Maybe if I had stopped to think and listen, it wouldn’t have happened,” says Severus.

Remus shakes his head, before kissing Severus deeply.  
There was no need for further words on that subject.

“The time will come for our daughter to remember what she needs to,” Remus instead says. “All we can do is wait until she does.”  
“I just can’t help but worry, not knowing.”  
Letting their daughter get away was the hardest decision for both of them, knowing the risks involved.

“You are not the only one, Tritão.”  
Severus glares at Remus. “You know I am not a fan of that endearment!”  
Remus knew the glare had no bite, but it was enough to start helping his mate move his thoughts elsewhere, just for awhile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tritão = Portuguese for Merman according to Google translate


	9. 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some truths are given, but not all of it.

Chapter Nine

Calypso couldn't help the smile when she saw her friend, Arachne, upon waking up. Arachne was still asleep. The bed was a double bed, so there was easily enough room for them both. Neither really spoke the night before, when they were turning in. They didn't need to. Being back in the other's company was enough at that point.

Not wanting to disturb her, Calypso pulled back the covers and got out of bed, and went to exit the room. She noticed Raphael's door was open. Her eyes closed for a moment, feeling something she hadn't before. Her eyes opened and she looked at Michelangelo's closed door, feeling the same serge.

Not knowing what to think, Calypso chose to ignore it.  
Walking into the living area, she saw Leonardo on the larger of the two couches. He was awake, leaning his back against the arm, feet up, blanket still partly on him and reading a book.

Once again, the unusual feeling was forefront. She closed her eyes and fought for it to go away.  
"Good morning," Leonardo then said, now looking up at her. "Your hairs changed!"  
Calypso was a little confused by this; “What do you mean different?”  
"The blue and purple, they've gone darker … looks really nice with your blonde."  
Calypso ran to the bathroom, just as Raphael emerged from his room.  
"Everything okay?" he asked, but was met with a door slamming at him. He looked at his older brother, with slight confusion. "What just happened?"  
"I only complimented the vibrant of the colours in Caly's hair. They've gone a lot darker," Leonardo replied.

In the bathroom, Calypso was staring at the tall mirror. Leonardo was right; her hair had changed dramatically from the day before. The light blue and purple formed into streaks, blending perfectly in with the dark blonde. She looked down at her wrists and elbows, where the scales were more visible. They, too, had gone darker; the olive and light greens with even blends of light purple and darker green creeping up her arms. Other colours were starting to peep through.

She had noted that her irises were starting to add flecks of violet and ebony, complimenting the amber and blue.

She took off her shirt and saw the rest of her scales were doing the same, and the 'human' parts of her skin were staying the same fair colour. Her gills were very much the same. She in dire need for a long swim, something she never told the Turtles was that she couldn't go longer than a few days without being in water. She had been compensating by long showers at night, or in the morning, every second day, so she was able to exercise her gills just a little. But she's in much need of having an actual swim.

Only, this change was nothing to do with Calypso's need to swim.  
This actually terrified her. She didn't know what this was.  
"Scales? Are you alright?" spoke a voice from outside.  
It was Arachne.

"Don't come in!" said a shaky Calypso.  
This was ignored, as Arachne opened the door and entered.  
"One of the Turtles, the one in blue woke me, sounding very concerned."  
"What's happening to me?" Calypso asked.

Arachne closed the door.  
"Have you been noticing any … feelings?"  
"Like wanting to be with one of the Turtles feeling?"  
Arachne studied Calypso, taking in the girl she grew up with. Claimed her as a sister. "Yes. That kind of feeling."  
Calypso nodded meekly.

Arachne closed her red and green eyes and gave a small nod. "Scales … you're not the only one who's having those same sort of feelings. You weren't the only one in the dark by all of this, either." She sat on the edge of the bathtub.  
"How do you mean?"  
"You weren't the only one our friends were trying to get out," said Arachne. "SAROHE have done it to every female... and bearing male... they've had."  
"Done what?"  
"Remember how they paired Morrigan with Raiden? And paired Lucifer and Lancelot together?"  
Calypso nodded again, remmembering.

Arachne didn't look at her friend when she said the following; "They were forced… All of them. I cannot forget the looks on their faces… it was… horrible. Especially more of what they do to when a pregnancy is successful." Arachne paused, allowing Calypso to process. "It seemed that the only so called comfort for them is that they went with the bearers attractions. Though… they don't always do."  
"How did you find this out?" asked Calypso asked.  
Arachne now looked at Calypso.

"Elrik told me two nights ago, just after we got to the Hotel, before we began our search for you," said Arachne, shifting uncomfortably. "He told me. I didn't want to believe it at the time."  
"Is that why my birth father, Severus, came up with the plans of escape?"  
The mentioning of the name startled Arachne. “How?”  
“Donatello did some digging and I found out some stuff to help my memory, which no-one else was willing to fill me in on since our leaving the island,” Calypso answers. "I am yet to be given a picture of what he looks like."  
“There were reasons, Scales,” Arachne sounded guilty in not being able to reveal much to her friend, even when on the run.  
“What reasons?”

Arachne doesn’t look at Calypso. This frustrates the blonde girl.  
“Aria...”  
“Stokes and the Coats deliberately had your memory scattered!” Arachne blurts. “They’ve been doing it for a long while. The plan was to force you to mate with both your siring father and your birthing father, because they wanted to see whether the whole keeping the bloodline pure or whatever would make any offspring stronger or weaker.  
“Stokes and the others wanted to make sure that you didn’t remember who they were, but at the same time have your fathers know you. Some sick twist they wanted to pull. Severus and Remus did not want to go through with that.  
“They, as in Stokes, also wanted to know the moment you were in mating and bearing age whether you would have live babies, or lay eggs, based on what they had done to ‘modify and improve’ you.”

Calypso stares at Arachne, before looking into the mirror once more, many thoughts running through her head upon what she had been given.  
Not just now, from Arachne, but also from Splinter the day before.  
Feeling as though something was starting to spark a little flicker of something deep in the dark pit of her mind. She still couldn’t reach it... but...

This got Calypso thinking; of those tiny instances she caught herself in some form of a flashback, or plausible recollection not long after she started staying with Splinter and his family.  
The most recent being the day before when Splinter gave her a little bit of some of the things she really wanted to know.

Calypso yhen felt weak in the knees, sitting herself on to the floor. Their faces starting to materialise to the forefront of her memories.  
Now seeing it coming back to her; thinking of all the times, back on Stokes Isle, still largely all over the place, but not as much, when she was slipped extra rations of food. The insisting that she ought to have some form of clothing, which resulted in allowing Calypso the luxury of few select skirts. Being called by various terms of endearment, and just being there, whenever they were allowed to be.

“Why keep it a secret from me?” she then asks.  
Arachne sighs; “Keeping it a secret wasn’t intentional, Scales. There were many times we wanted to tell you, but it’s like there was a part in the spell that had been cast, or perhaps some protective casing within your own brain, not sure exactly, that just wasn’t getting through for bizarre reasons until now.”  
“I wish I truly understood, Aria,” she says.  
“Believe me, Scales, if I had the full answers, I’d give them to you. But at the same time, there have been plenty of cases where certain things made sense.”  
“Such as the mass escape,” Calypso concluded.  
Arachne nods. “Severus and Remus discovered certain truths on various matters that concerned most of us, including you and them; they really made sure that anything and everything that was planned was stuffed right on up, or heavily delayed.”  
There was a brief pause.

"Is there anything more that I ought to know?" she then asks, gazing up at Arachne. “Like what is going on with me right now?”  
"For lack of better terminology … we're going on heat?" Arachne tells her. "Every single bearer that have been with SAROHE have gone on heat for the first time between the ages thirteen and fifteen, fourteen being where most find their mates, whether they’re to be life mates, or be part of a multiple group," she explains further.  
"Still doesn't explain why my memory had to be erased, except for what you’ve told me. I feel there is more than that," said Calypso.  
"I wouldn't know the answer to that, Scales," said Arachne apologetically. "Only that at least you know about your parentage now."  
"That's true."  
Arachne picked up Calypso's shirt from the floor. "Are you going to be okay? Now that you know?"  
Calypso accepted the shirt. "Now that I have some answers. I will be. Only... I really need to find a safe place to swim."

###

"Why didn't you tell us sooner?" asked Leonardo.

It was later during the day, the Turtles, Arachne and Calypso had arrived at a very secluded beach that the Turtles discovered many years ago, with their Master Splinter when they were smaller, and frequented whenever the weather allowed it.

Though the beach itself may be secluded, the Turtles still had to be disguised in jackets, tracksuits and hats so is to make sure no-one truly notices them.  
Right now, they were going over the rocky barrier between the main of the beach and the secluded area.

"Guess I didn't want to make it an issue," Calypso replied.  
"Never mind you do need to be in water after every few days," Arachne reminded her; "As in something bigger than a bathtub!"  
"Does this mean we can finally get a swimming pool?" Michelangelo chimed with a large grin.  
"If you can figure out a way to fit a swimming pool in the sewers, Mikey, we're all ears," Donatello responded.

This got the Orange wearing Turtle thinking for a moment.  
"He's actually contemplating on it?" Raphael said, amused.  
"Don't say you haven't had the same idea, Raph!" Michelangelo returned.  
"Was I disagreeing with you?"  
"No."  
"Then why the retort?"  
"Didn't think I was bro; sorry if you thought so."

"An island with private lagoon and fresh coconuts would be my choice," Leonardo voiced, watching his step over a few slippery, seaweed covered rocks.  
"So long as it's far, far, far away from Stokes Isle, I'll join you," Arachne commented.  
"Pretty sure there are plenty of islands in the Pacific Ocean that is nowhere near it, Aria," said Calypso.  
"Like Australia? That's an island that's far, far, far away from the Isle," Arachne says.  
"Australia is a country, not an island!" said Michelangelo.  
"Wrong Mikey," Donatello piped up. "Well, yes, Australia is a country; however it's also one of the largest islands in the world, if not the largest. It's also a continent."  
"Really?" says Raphael, a little amazed by this fact.  
"Really," said Donatello.

Finally, they reached the small beach. It was carved perfectly into the cliffs and rocks.  
Calypso didn't hesitate, darting toward the water, taking off the sash that as hiding her gills and tossing it to the side and went straight in. She was wearing a tankini with skirt, only the top didn't cover the gills, and she cannot stand the feel of any form of compression sensation on them when in water.

"Aren't you still worried about exposure out here?" Arachne asks, making some awareness to the connecting beach on the other side of the rocks they just climbed and walked over.  
"That's probably why we love a part of this beach that no-one can find," Leonardo said, taking off his jacket and cap. "Only it's among the rocks we just walked over, and we have to swim right under to access it. How good are you at holding your breath under water, Arachne? Donny did bring a snorkel in case."  
"I can stay under for between five minutes to two hours. Depending on activity," Arachne answered.  
"Sounds like us. Being turtles," Raphael remarks. "So that would mean you are part turtle, too?"

The Turtles have been trying to guess what animals Arachne had within her. They had figured out spider and monkey – Arachne had been keeping her now very visible tail concealed.  
"Correct," said Arachne, smiling. "Just one more to figure out. Other than human."

The Turtles put their disguises, Calypso's sash that Arachne grabbed, and Donatello's bag of tricks in the safety of a metal box they kept hidden among the safety of the cliff and rocks; then joined Calypso in the water.

Leonardo was the first to go right under where it was deep enough to go, to lead the way. Right to where the waves weren't crashing against the rocks on the surface.

A cave entry.  
The cave was large enough to swim comfortably inside. It wasn't so dark, as light of sorts was beaming into it. Probably from small gaps above, allowing sunlight in. It felt long, but not too long, as it opened right up into an incline of sorts, where it started going shallow into a form of a pool, where the end of the cave was. Or the start of, whichever way one came in and out from.

"Whoa!" the girls exclaimed upon the sight of the huge cavern.

In here there were several pools of varying depths. It wasn't hard to tell that the Turtles had put their mark on the place. From comic books to a CD player. Even dry towels.

"How did you get all of this in here?" Calypso asked, getting out.  
"Waterproofing by using a fish tank and good sealant," said Donatello. "Only it took several attempts to get it right."  
"And a lot of casualty items," said Michelangelo in mock sadness.  
"How often to you come here?" asked Calypso.  
"We come when the weather is at its warmest. We don't come here when November comes around, sometimes late October," Leonardo replied. "By then we have everything cleared out."

Leonardo couldn't help noticing the vibrancy of Calypso's colours in her hair and scales. He wasn't the only one, however.  
"Scales!" Arachne called, from the farthest pool. "Come check this out!"  
Calypso went over to her friend. "What is it, Aria?"  
Arachne was sitting at the edge and holding something; which turned out to be a pearl.  
"This isn't why you called me over," Calypso said in a quieter voice; after she sat on the little ledge that was submerged, having her midriff down under water.  
Arachne looked over to the Turtles, who were still close to the pool they entered from. By the look of it discussing something.  
"Scales, how are you feeling? And I don't mean your relief on being in water."

Calypso looked away from her friend.  
"I've been fighting my instincts. They've been growing stronger," she admitted, still not looking at her. "It's like … like I really want it to happen. I don't even know if I've even managed to stop any signals from escaping."  
"Apart from your colours," Arachne pointed out. "Even I can tell."  
"Only because you know me, and you know what it means. I only found out this morning because of you, remember."  
"I have a feeling, you would have discovered it, even without my having to have told you," said Arachne, playing around with the pearl in her hands.  
Calypso looked at her friend. "Just wish I had of known before now. Not just on this. Everything!"

"I know, Scales."  
"Do you think I just cannot… you know?"  
"I really wouldn't know."  
"But… I don't want to not to, either… you know?"  
"I know."  
"What do I do, Aria?"  
"Honestly?"  
Calypso nodded.

"I really don't want to fight it," Arachne said with honesty in her tone. "But, I'm afraid on either path I choose to take on this, yet, unlike the others before us, we get to choose."  
"Guess, we'll soon find out just how hard we can fight it, or not," said Calypso, with a sigh.  
"Fight what?"  
The girls turned to notice Raphael a little closer to being in earshot than they realised.  
"Nothing," they both said in unison.  
Calypso and Arachne decided to end their talk there.

###

Raphael hadn't intended on overhearing them at all. He had no idea what Calypso and Arachne were even on about. However, judging by the sudden 'nothing' response and nervous looks, it was clear that whatever it was, it wasn't for him to listen to.

"Is it just me, or is Donny trying to state the obvious?" Michelangelo then asked his brother in red.

Raphael glanced at Michelangelo at his left, before shifting to see Donatello over by the books. Only, the Purple wearing Turtle wasn't reading the book in his hands, he was stealing glances over at the girls.

"He's not the only one," said Raphael, pointing to Leonardo, who was doing katas, only to be also stealing glances toward Arachne and Calypso. "Though it’s not like you haven't been doin' the same, Mikey."

"Speak for yourself, Raph!" Michelangelo replied, though wasn't disagreeing with the statement made about him.  
"I'm baffled as to why though? Since when do all four of us look toward the same girl?"  
"Which one are you looking at? There are two of them."  
"Calypso."  
"Oh!"  
There was a brief pause.

Michelangelo then spoke; "Well, I don't think Donny is looking at Caly. Not any more, I don't think. He's been eyeing Arachne since she entered the Lair yesterday. Not sure where Leo's attention is at, but I have a feeling his is where you and I are also seeking."

He gestures lightly toward Calypso, who was still with Arachne, talking. The shades of green, light purple and dark of her scales were reflecting off the light within the cavern. But also more colours were starting to show, orange, red and lighter blue. Her temples were looking like she had been professionally done by a makeup or tattoo artist, as the colours had delicately covered her eyes, like eye-shadow.

Arachne was swishing her red and black tail, and playing a game with the pearl by tossing it in the air and catching it with the web she springs from her hands.  
"Gotta admit, though, Arachne is pretty cute," Michelangelo added, just as quietly.  
"If you say Donny is eyein' her off, I'm gonna to agree with you and leave it at that," Raphael replied.

Soon it was time to leave.  
The trip home wasn't completely quiet.  
"Okay. I have one for Leo," said Michelangelo to Leonardo. "If you had to choose between eating a bowl of wasabi or jump into a pool of innards, which would you pick?"  
Leonardo actually had to think of that one.  
"Wasabi," he said, half confident with his answer. "Only because I've eaten the stuff before… just not sure about a whole bowl full though."  
"Where did you get the innards idea from?" Raphael asked, with a small frown at his younger brother.  
"I saw something on YouTube. Some challenge some celebrity had to do, forget who it was. But they had to go diving into a tank that had fish guts and slime and other stuff in it. It was pretty gnarly, and not in the good way."  
"People actually do that for fun?" Arachne asked, slightly surprised by this.  
"Not sure if fun is the word for what the guy was doing," said Michelangelo.  
Before long, they were back at the Lair, to a relieved Master Splinter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The bowl of wasabi and pool of innards idea came from the Australian version of the tv show "I'm a Celebrity, Get me out of here", where I remember watching this when I was first writing this particular chapter a few years back.


	10. 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dumbledore makes an announcement that shocks Severus.

Chapter Ten

Many conversations were flying around, the clinking of cutlery against the plates and goblets being poured for another swig of drink to be had. Everyone was in upbeat moods, or it felt like it was, for it was the beginning of the year feast for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

‘Another year of being forced to endure dunderheads, both student and staff alike,’ Severus despondently thinks to himself, making a sweeping glance over the tables.

Unease would wash over him when he would sense Dumbledore looking his way, the same if it was Alastor ‘Mad-Eye’ Moody, who had taken up the post as the new Defence against the Dark Arts teacher, since Remus was not able to keep the role.

The two were of different measures, though.  
Severus couldn’t put his finger on why he was sensing what he was with Moody, but something wasn’t quite right.  
With Dumbledore, that was a whole other can of tomatoes.

All starting right after that night during his fifth year, when Sirius Black convinced him to go to the shrieking shack, where Severus discovered Remus to being a werewolf, (and realising one of the ever growing list of reasons why he chose him for his life mate).

Severus had sensed the strength before then, and lavished it whenever they managed to sneak about the castle to release their wonting. But once he saw the truth, he wanted Remus even more!

Oh! He was still pissed at Black, and was still convinced Potter was part of the ruse; but he forgave and could understand why it took a while for his mate to come clean – even to another wizard with a mutated bloodline.

Unfortunately, it was also when the Headmaster had put two and two together, based on him catching on how Remus and Severus acted not long after the incident.

According to Wizard Law, both nationally and internationally, Wizards and Witches born from mutated bloodline are supposedly protected, as they are more pure than purebloods, for they came from the original beginnings of when magical beings, (and some non-magical but equally capable). Being a male bearer should have put Severus at a higher status, but due to some mucking about, and blind sighting, he and Remus found themselves in the hands of Robert Stokes and his crew of White Coats.

The shit they endured...  
The endless violations of their entire beings in one shape or form.  
Worse was when Dumbledore coerced Severus to join Voldemort’s ranks, and Remus to spy on the werewolves, by performing certain acts that still haunt them to this day.  
The many times Severus would wake up screaming from that memory, (amongst others), and having Remus holding him tightly, while he, too, was feeling just as gutted in knowing what was causing the harrowing pain.

James Potter, of all people, had put the pieces together, and was about to expose the corruption of the ever great Albus Dumbledore and whomever was in his pocket... only to wind up dead, along with Lily, leaving their son, Harry, orphaned.

The story had been spread about it all being Voldemort...  
It was how Voldemort met his downfall, and left the toddler with nothing but a scar.

Severus glances over to the Gryffindor table, where the now famous teenager sat. A splitting image of his father, James, except for the green eyes that were from Lily. Fed with the truth and the lies of that fateful night.

They had been so close to telling him everything, only for it to go completely pear shaped, where shit hit the fan; which was why Moody was in Remus’s place at the staff table now.  
Severus turns his head at the sound of someone talking to him.

“Hmm?”  
“I said is the food not to your liking, Severus?” McGonagall asks him with concern. “You’ve barely touched your plate.”  
Severus peers down to the corn beef and vegetables he scarcely nibbled on.  
“Food’s just fine, Minerva,” he simply replies, stabbing a bit of potato and placing it in his mouth to try and prove his point.

Truth was he just wasn’t hungry. He had barely eaten anything for the past few days. Okay, not true, Remus made sure Severus ate his fill, or to some satisfactory.  
With this coming to mind, Severus did what he could to eat more of his meal, though his mind was still drifting elsewhere.

The feast ended, Dumbledore made the announcement of the Triwizard Tournament, where Hogwarts was going to play host to two other schools a little later in the year, introducing Professor Moody, reminders of certain rules and various other notices that needed to be addressed.

“Oh! One last thing,” the Headmaster spoke, just before the rumblings of students could take off. “Throughout the year students are between ages thirteen and fifteen will be reporting to the Hospital Wing for a full medical examination, as it’s been made compulsory for all witches and wizards entering into these ages to have them done every year once they’ve turned thirteen, starting from this year.”

Severus shoots a wide eyed stare at the elderly Wizard, feeling the colour draining from his face; knowing exactly what Dumbledore was attempting.

‘Surely he didn’t rope Madam Pomfrey into it?’ he thought, hoping beyond hope that Pomfrey wasn’t involved – given the Nurse’s strong stance on how mutated bloodlines ought to be treated, knowing how things are very different for them, just as so if the Mutant has all the signs of being able to breed, be they male or female bearers, or male or female sires, they have a high chance of being able to pass on, or improve, powerful magic to viable children.

Sadly, as Severus and Remus had discovered, not everyone is willing to play by the rules. Just as frustrating on how people have gotten away with such exploitation.  
Now one of those exploiters is...

Severus curled his fingers into fists, simmering on the audacity of this charade, living under a cloak of portraying a kindly old man, when he is anything but!  
The second everyone was dismissed, the Potions Master made his way to the Hospital Wing to seek out the Medi-witch. He didn’t have to wait long.  
“Severus?” she speaks, her tone seemed to have figured why he was in the facility.  
Severus cut to the chase. “Did you know about Dumbledore’s plan to find any students who may have mutated genetics?”  
Pomfrey exhaled heavily. “After years of blocking the Headmaster, he finally found a way to go over my head,” she tells him. “But, he’s only going to end up, as the Muggle phrase goes, shooting himself in the foot.”

Naturally this confuses the Wizard. Pomfrey explains.  
“There are laws against the exploitation of the Mutated blood, as it’s been known on how sacred they are, for it is how the Wizards started, along with other races that make it possible for crossbreed existence, or even compatible with non-magic, or the revival of a repressed gene, such as certain Muggleborns for example.”

Severus understood the adding of Muggleborns, Lily Evans was one such person to have...  
“Dumbledore is doing this to see if Potter has the genes of his mother?”  
“Not just from his mother,” says Pomfrey.  
This was news to Severus. “Potter’s father...?”  
“They kept it hidden, like so many despite the laws written, knowing of the sudden disappearances and reappearances to avoid suspicions. Anyone who got close to exposing those involved suddenly ended up dead or severely brain damaged.”

Severus knew about it, flicking back through his earlier thought, and knowledge.  
“Plus, he’s not just after Potter,” the Nurse adds.  
“Who else?” Severus asks. “Am I allowed to know?”  
“Most of them are suspicions, but...” Madam Pomfrey began, knowing Severus was safe to disclose such information to.

###

Remus spied movement coming from the fireplace, and looked up from his book to see Severus emerging into the little den of their private home, where Severus would escape to whenever he needed to be away from Hogwarts.

“Uh oh, what’s happened?” he asks, seeing the disturbed expression on his mate’s face.  
Severus told him of what Dumbledore had done.  
“Pomfrey has one thing right,” Remus says, though with equal worry; “The Headmaster is likely to shoot himself in the foot.”  
“Doesn’t stop the bad feelings, Remus. Especially with what we know and have experienced,” said Severus.

Remus gestures Severus to join him, which wasn’t refused; allowing for the light brown haired wizard to pull the darker haired into him.  
“Good thing the targets have an ally to help them.”  
“As if I would stand by and allow for Dumbledore and his arse-kissers to do whatever it is they are intending to do.”  
“That’s what I mean,” says Remus, nuzzling his face into the crook of Severus’s neck, beginning to lightly kiss the area. “Some of them will be starting to look for their mates, or start to develop into that phase. We both know what that entails.”  
“All too well,” Severus replies, leaning his head to expose more of where Remus was concentrating. “Suppose there is finally a real reason in being stuck in that blasted castle!”  
“Mmm, and what was I last year?” Remus teases.  
“A much welcome distraction from being stuck in that blasted castle.”

Taking it as a compliment and sensing enough of what he needed to, Remus began to do more than light kissing.  
Severus sank into the groping hands, stronger kisses and gentle nips. His concealment fading away, displaying his shimmering scales for his mate. Remus could smell his scent, a scent that was for him and him alone, it was intoxicating.  
_Really intoxicating!_  
This much meant one of two things coming from his mate.  
However one of those things was no longer possible, even with such a strong scent and extremely visible display of colours.

“Are you sure, Trésor?” he asks.  
“I need to not think for a while, Amar,” Severus shifts just enough to look at him. “Please?”  
Remus returns to the light nipping and groping he was giving before; “Any time you wish to stop, you let me know.”

Upon these words, Severus replies by shifting right around to face Remus, and started giving his own array of kisses and hand movements, including the unbuttoning of Remus’s shirt and opening it right up, showing off the fair coloured chest hairs.  
Bit by bit, more clothing was removed, their affections ramping up more and more, Remus was soon causing Severus to make the sounds he knew all too well, making him pump more into him.  
Sweaty and near breathless, Remus heard and felt his mate come into climax, Severus bucked back into him as the orgasm engulfed him, having the cascade effect to bring Remus on, too.

During all of this, they didn’t see the owl that had flown on in to drop off a sealed envelope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trésor = French for treasure (Google translate)  
Amar = Portuguese for Love


	11. 11

Chapter Eleven

Startling awake, he wasn’t even sure what caused him to snap out of his state of sleep.  
In his slight daze he caught it; it was very subtle, but powerful at the same time.  
Unwittingly, he found himself getting out of bed and exiting out of his room, just in time to see Calypso slipping out of the Lair.  
Partly curious, partly worried and unable to stop himself, (and having a knowing feeling), he followed her.

Keeping at a distance, he made sure she was still in his sights.  
However, he had this strong inkling on where she was going.  
Every few moments Calypso would stop in her tracks, searching for whatever she was looking for, before continuing. This did take them further and further away from the Lair.

She ended up going up a ladder and out of the underground all together.  
He waited just long enough before he, too, was climbing up the ladder; noticing straight off how the manhole cover had not been placed back over.  
When he reached the top and slowly poked his head out, his hunch was on the money, for he spotted Calypso dashing toward the beach they had been to four days prior, not stopping, except to make sure she wasn’t seen in the mix of overhead lights and pre dawn.

Making absolute that no-one would see him, he continued to trail and saw her just in time to see her going into the waves, (wearing only her tankini, as her jeans and shirt would be hidden in the rocks), and deep enough to dive right on under.  
Being as quick, he did the same and was able to find his way to the underwater entry to the Hangout Cavern.

###

Moments before she had left the Turtles’ Lair, she was in an internal debate.

Calypso really wanted to go to his room, but... she was afraid to; she just didn’t know what to do, so she did what she felt was the best thing to do, and that was to remove herself from the Lair.

She needed to find somewhere that was safe and secluded enough to hideaway; making her way to the little beach and not hesitating to go do the cavern.  
Once here she felt a little better because she had been in water.

She went over to one of the smaller pools and sat on the edge; placing her feet in the coolness, Calypso closes her eyes as she brings her fingers to where she needed some form of relief.

Her eyes opened a little, and her senses captured that she wasn’t alone. She knew his scent well enough by now, being around him and his brothers long enough, analysing them through this sensory that she didn’t know she even had until not long after she had accepted the offer of living in the Lair.

Each of them had almost every requirement that may fit, but to her, it had to be more than that.

Calypso slowly moves her head enough to see him emerging from the pool that was the cavern’s doorway, causing her to stop in touching herself, resting the hand just in her inner thigh.

Her heart was beating hard. Hers wasn’t the only one; his was, too, as he approached her.  
The shimmering golden amber hue stood out against the rest of the colours that made up her alluring scales and skin, save for the greens.

Michelangelo had noticed this colour slowly to creep up a few hours after they had arrived back from the little day trip, along with certain ‘tugs’ that he was very aware of... and they had been discreetly finding ways on being alone well before then; not wanting to make it obvious.

There was no hesitation in the kiss when he was now right next to her.  
The other’s scent near on overpowering; Michelangelo gently pulls away from the kiss, and speaks softly, taking Calypso by the hand.  
“Are you sure you want to do this?”

Calypso’s mix coloured eyes were looking right into his chocolate brown pair.  
“I don’t know,” was her honest reply. “I need a mate, I don’t know why I do, but I do, like something within me is wired to find my match... you... I...”  
She was about to look away, unsure on what words to use anymore, but Michelangelo stops her.  
“Are you confident that I am that match, Calypso?”

This was perhaps one of the most serious times Michelangelo has shown himself to be. Calypso had gotten to know the Turtles and their personalities very well, even more so when she and the orange wearing Turtle had gotten closer and closer.

In response, she moves in and softly started kissing him; he returns this by drawing his arm around her and bringing her right up, careful to not fall into the pool, also giving her kisses. Calypso’s arms go up and around his neck, bringing one of her legs out of the water as she turned move, feeling both of Michelangelo’s now along her waist and lower back.

He senses that she was still fighting her instinct underneath her start to relax into their kissing, like she had many times now, but this was a little different. She was afraid.  
Michelangelo stops them from kiss to tell her that they can stop if she needed to; he wasn’t forcing her to go there if she wasn’t ready to, and she didn’t need to be scared to say so.

Calypso shakes her head. “I want to... I am... ready.”  
He cups her cheek, searching her expression. He could see that she wasn’t afraid of him, and that she did want to mate with him; it was something else entirely that was causing her to wrestle with that need and want within.

“I’m afraid of what they will do if they were to find me and take me back there,” she then says. “I’ve been starting to remember things. Things from back there on the island, that I thought I couldn’t really make any sense out of, because they were too scattered or blurred.”

Michelangelo, (and his brothers and Splinter), had been aware of Calypso’s misplaced memories beginning to trickle in since not only when Splinter told her a little of what had been found out, but also when she was given a photo print of not just her maternal father, but also her paternal one, as well, (Donatello having to have found it with his endless digging around in the SAROHE computer systems).

He was also aware of the ordeals bearers had been forced to go through; both male and female, much to his surprise, but quick to figure that it didn’t matter at the end, due to the fact that they were still living and breathing beings being practically tortured in some way; physically, emotionally, psychologically... even sexually.

Even the offspring weren’t safe.

There were stuff within those files of which Donatello had been able to access that they literally had to look way from, be it to stop reading or watching, all because it was just too distressing. Much to the point where the purple wearing turtle would shut off from digging all together for a good long while and do something else, because he wouldn’t be able to function if he continued.

Raphael wanted to go into some gung-ho blaze of glory on the facility whenever he saw certain clips. Even Leonardo had similar thoughts.

“Caly,” Michelangelo goes to say. “No matter what happens, we will do everything we can to protect you.” He then leans in, tenderly kisses her on the lips, before adding; “And I will not allow anyone to hurt you, or take you, unless they want to meet the swift ends of my chucks.”

A small smile spread on Calypso’s lips, and began placing them on Michelangelo.

As they sank further into their kisses, the more they found the need to be more comfortable; Mikey knew this cavern very well, so it was easy to move them to a little nook that had thick blankets and cushions tucked within.

Caly allowed for her tankini to be removed; Mikey’s own gear, including his bandanna, was also taken off; seeing the other in their entirety, showing their vulnerability, trusting the flow, as they found their way into position; her legs parting with nervous ease, inviting him in between, his penis, that had lowered out during their stripping and caressing, found its target; sliding right into her wet heat.

“Are you okay, Love?” Mikey asks, feeling her tense for a mere moment upon entering her.  
“Yes,” Caly whispers, analysing this new sensation.

It wasn’t too long before Michelangelo felt himself knotted fully inside Calypso; being a turtle, he did read somewhere this is a normal occurrence during mating, it’s to ensure that his seed had a strong chance of impregnating the female; Mikey just wasn’t expecting it to actually happen, being a mutant turtle.

Yet, Calypso wasn’t displaying any discomfort, if anything showing quite the opposite, plus given she was able to hold him in place and milk him whenever he would ejaculate into her with each orgasm they would climax to.

Neither of them knew on how much time had passed, they didn’t seem to care, as Mikey was finally able to ease out of his mate and lie alongside her, pulling her firmly into his arms. Caly could feel an already protective hand on her belly, as she rest her head against his plastron, knowing she had made the right choice in picking her mate.


	12. 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A change is happening to Harry...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remus got kinda cute...

Chapter Twelve

“Hey, did you see this being dropped off?” Remus inquires, seeing a rose gold envelope on the end table that he swore wasn’t there earlier.  
He and Severus were still completely naked and resting on the couch from their many hours of love making.  
“No,” Severus answers.  
Remus sat up, causing Severus to shift a little, to grab the envelope and lie back down, bringing it closer for them both to see and tearing it open to get to the contents inside, knowing that the names ‘Neptune and Saturn’ were their code names.  
The entire letter itself was written in code, one that the pair had created and shared with a few they knew could be trusted.  
Nothing had fully prepared them for what they were about to learn.

###

Harry gritted his teeth, doing his best to keep himself muffled with the sounds, having trouble comprehending on what was going on within him. Beads of sweat prickling along his skin, heart pounding hard within his chest. He needed relief; but why? What was going on?

“Potter?” he hears his name being called.  
The Gryffindor teenager manages to move his head at the sound of the Potion Master’s voice.  
“Potter, what are you doing out past curfew? 20 points from Gryffindor!”

It was true, Harry was not in the Gryffindor Tower; he just couldn’t be in there! It didn’t feel... safe? Was that the reason he was all the way down on one of the other floors, walking along a corridor, without his Invisibility Cloak? He forgot which one, he lost track just trying to get to wherever he supposedly had to go, wherever that was, as he also forgot the Marauder’s Map.

“I’m... I’m sorry, sir... I...”  
Okay... why was he sounding like this? He wasn’t usually sounding frightened whenever Professor Snape ever showed up; losing points to the man wasn’t anything new. He supposed he would also get detention, too, most likely.  
“I... I don’t know what to do...”  
Professor Snape frowns a little at this; “What do you mean, ‘you don’t know what to do’? You’re meant to -”  
But as he stepped closer, the older wizard saw straight away.

Harry’s green eyes had flecks of silver, he noticed the boy’s skin had this ‘shine’ if one can describe it as such, where the light of his wand was giving off this faint reflection.  
Severus felt this hard thump within his chest; he knew what he was seeing.  
Instinctively, Severus checks to make sure no-one else was about, before turning to Harry, who was clearly in no state to be seen right now.  
“Which element do you need to be in?” he then asks.  
The young Wizard gives a puzzled expression. “Sir?”  
“Element? As in air, fire,” Severus patiently tells the confused teen. “Your... er... your instinct will tell you.”

This was of no surprise to the Potions Master in all honesty; Harry Potter was not the first he has helped in these situations, whether or not they knew what exactly was going on with them.  
Harry, still unsure of what Professor Snape was talking about, but seeing that this man of all people was actually helping, the teenager had to trust in it. So he took a brief moment to ‘think’, or rather ‘listen’ to what he needed.  
“Water... I feel I need to be in water?”  
Severus takes another step toward Harry.  
Harry went to move away, thinking he was going to get into some sort of punishment.

“Potter, you are going to need to trust me, I will explain, but not here. You need to be away from this castle and some place a little more protected.”  
“Protected?”  
“Believe me, please.”  
Seeing no other option, and his intuition blasting at him to listen to the older man, Harry accepted the help that was being provided to him.  
Checking and using whatever senses he could, Severus pulls out a little orb like object from within his robes, and tells Harry to place his hand on it.

As soon as this happened, the orb glowed for a split moment and engulfed them, in the blink of an eye, Harry and Severus were no longer standing in the darkened hallway of Hogwarts castle, instead they were right next to a beautifully scenic looking lake, with specially carved out pools and rocks bordering it, along with caves and the trees of the forest they were in.  
“Where are we?” Harry asks; he was a little panicked.

“Forêt du sanctuaire,” Severus replies, as he sends a signalling flare from his wand through the trees in one of the directions. Seeing that the boy didn’t get a lick of what he meant; “It means Sanctuary Forest in French. It’s one of the few safe havens that I know of for our kind.”  
This confused Harry, and was about to ask for more information, only to be stopped by this unexplainable surge.  
Seeing this unfolding before him, Severus tells Harry to once again, follow his instinct.  
“You are in safety!” he promises.  
Still unsure, Harry asks him; “Why are you helping me?”

“Because we know what you’re going through, Harry, and we want you, and others who would like to go through the same phase, to be out of harm’s way,” came the voice of a man Harry did recognise straight away.  
He turned to see him emerging from the trees, though a little surprised by what he was even seeing.  
“Professor Lupin?”  
Remus Lupin had a kind smile on his face, knowing that this might be a little startling for Harry to see his amber and blue eyes, (instead of the blue he would have seen due to glamour), and ‘features’ that definitely weren’t visible during his time as a Professor at Hogwarts.

Perhaps confusing, too, given that Severus Snape was here and the last time Harry ever saw them in the same vicinity as the other was just before shit it the fan that caused Peter Pettigrew to get away, and nearly causing Sirius Black to lose his soul to the Dementors.  
“I don’t understand,” says the teen.  
“You will in time, for now, it is best that you get yourself into the water,” says Snape.  
Unable to ignore what his inner self was urging, Harry tore off his pyjama shirt and made a dash for the lake.  
The moment the water splashed against him, the newly developing mutant could instantly feel the change within him. The sensation he had was still there, but it was eased off slightly.

“You know Dumbledore will do everything he can to exploit him if he were to discover the spells that have kept Harry’s mutation hidden have finally broken down,” Remus says to Severus.  
“I am aware, Remus; especially if he were to learn Potter is looking to being able to sire and conceive,” Severus considers aloud; watching Harry surface for a moment, and then go back down.  
“Are you going to tell him?”  
Severus side glimpses his mate; the mixed look of hesitancy and apprehension written plain.  
“I’m going to have to,” he replies, a little shaky.  
“You know there is nothing in any of this that would ever indicate in this being your fault, Severus,” Remus reminds him.  
“Only to the fact that I – we - had been lied to. You, me... Harry most of all? Yet for the first blasted years of sighting the boy... believing he was... only to... how did I not notice this before?”

“Perhaps that was the point, you weren’t meant to,” Remus suggests to the now guilt ridden Severus. “Thing is, I don’t think they were counting on this to happen. They would have known Harry would reach the transition stage, where he will want, or need, to find a mate, or simply be in heat and want sex, hoping to use that to their advantage, ensure the truth never reveals itself to him, no matter on whether you had found out it just days ago.”  
“I should have gone to the boy the moment I had.”  
Remus shakes his head again. “That would have been unwise, Trésor, and you know it.”  
The corner of Severus’s mouth stretched to the side, showing the ‘I agree, but doesn’t make me happy’ look. “You and your ability to keep me grounded.”

This made the other man grin despite himself; “Well, I suppose it’s one of my redeeming qualities; which I guess can be interpreted as ‘I love you’.”  
The sloshing nearby indicated that Harry was surfacing, using one of the huge rocks on the water’s edge to haul himself up. Straight away, the men could see how much the boy had changed in appearance; his body had scales that blended in with his smooth and shiny skin, and neat slits on both of his sides, between his ribs and hip.  
Harry was understandably still very much bewildered by this.

“_What is going on with me?_” he says, undeniably doing his best to not freak out, when Severus and Remus had reached him.  
“Tempus maturitatem, also known as Tempus praeparatio,” Harry hears Severus responding to the question.  
“In laymen’s terms, you’re going through a phase that is very normal for the Mutated blood Witches and Wizards, simply best known as Mutants, or the Forgotten,” Remus explains so is to try and give the teen had a better understanding; though this would also bring up even more questions from Harry.  
“Mutants? Forgotten? What...? How...?”

Remus is the one to reply, as Severus was looking as though he was having a mental battle; “The most simplest ways to explain is various cores came from forms of mutation, including wizarding cores, and as a result, some of the lines still carry and pass on the original genetics that make some of the wizards and witches advance back to what we used to be.”

Harry closed his eyes again, feeling the wave of this need.  
“How do I get through this? Whatever this is?” he asks, doing his best to not feel immensely embarrassed; particularly in keeping the lower of his body in the water, hiding the stiffening within the offending and increasingly tight pyjama bottoms and jocks.  
“Usually with a mate,” says Severus before he could stop himself.  
Harry stares as he watches the older Wizard walking away from him and Remus to a different part of the lake.  
“That can’t be right, I’m only fourteen! I’m...”  
“It’s very different for the Forgotten, Harry,” Remus tells him, noticing the silver and violet flecks within Harry's green eyes.  
“But... I don’t even have anything close to what anyone would call a girlfriend! Or...” The teen’s cheeks warming up, not looking at Remus.

“No shame in admitting a preference toward the same sex, or both for that matter, because it was once seen as very normal amongst the many, including those with non-magical cores, as it came down to being able to find a well-suited mate and bring forth the next generation, like any other species where procreation is as much of an equal need, as well as comfort,” explains the man who was once Harry’s Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher.  
“Procreation? As in having babies? Is that why I am feeling like this?”  
Harry did not intend to sound utterly ignorant, he couldn’t help it. But then, it always seemed to be the bloody way whenever it came to the Wizarding World and how things are. There was just so much and here he was trying to comprehend everything he had been denied for ten years, and has been doing everything to make up for that in the past few since starting Hogwarts.  
Why wasn’t this ever bought up?

“Yes, Harry,” Remus confirms, as there was no other way about it.  
“But... I’m not ready for... for babies!”  
Again his cheeks were still quite warm at this. He didn’t want to sound immature, but darn it! He was trying to wrap his head around what Remus Lupin was telling him... and seeing Severus Snape had bought him here in the first place.

“You’re not going to do _that_ to me are you?” Harry then blurts out, shaken at the thought, clinging to the rock harder. He shoots a very quick glimpse to where Severus happened to be, noticing that the Potions Master was, while still close, a good distance away, looking extremely tense; it was then when he sees the man for what he was, he had removed the top layer of his clothing, exposing entire upper half of his body; scales, gills and all.

“No!” Remus replies firmly, though he could see why Harry would ask in the first place. “Severus and I are both spoken for; while some of the Mutated can and will have brief relations, and that’s perfectly fine, as that is part of their nature, others tend to gravitate more towards having a more monogamous pairing; in fact many are considered married the moment they declare themselves as mates.  
“Plus consent is a very strong rule when it comes to our ways, something that has been forgotten, or denied, in certain cases. A lesson of sorts you will likely learn in time.”  
Remus paused, internally debating on whether to say any further. ‘Another is many do not mate with their own offspring; unless it’s for a survival instinctual reason,’ his mind goes, but his mouth does not repeat; not wanting to speak without Severus on that matter.  
Not yet.

“I’m afraid the only solution is to ride this out.”  
“How long will that take?”  
“Usually for about three to four days.”  
Harry made a sound of protest at this answer. “How am I meant to go about the school like this, sir?”  
“You are not the first student to have experienced this, whilst attending Hogwarts, nor will you be the last,” Remus continues to give explanation. “Severus has been making sure each and every one he and Madam Pomfrey find is watched out for, keeping them hidden, going as far as bringing them here when needed.”  
“Why do I need to be hidden, sir?” asks the younger.

“You may address me as Remus, Harry, as I am no longer your Professor. To answer your question, over time the Mutated lines had to readapt to stop any who would wish to abuse them for their own means. How this came to be is unknown, but we, as in those who actually know and remember the laws, and not turn a blind eye to the exploiters, do all we can to shield the ones going into Tempus maturitatem, even before if we learn of them beforehand.”

Harry was almost afraid to ask, but he did anyway; “And who would want to do that?”  
“We will give you a better rundown a little later, as right now you are going to need, or rather want, much required privacy to get yourself into some sort of comfort level. We won’t be too far away, but we know this part well enough to know when it’s best to leave the ‘freshly matured’ alone.”  
“You are safe here, so do what you find necessary, I am going to have a chat with Severus.”  
Remus did wish to check on Severus, who had wondered off through the trees, (he didn’t have to guess where he was going).

Listening to his inner trust, Harry nodded his reply, before slipping himself fully back into the water.  
He still didn’t fully understand, both with himself and with the two Professors, but Harry was willing to chance a bet that this was clearly the better solution, if what Remus had told him was true.

Harry also hoped that the Potions Master was okay; it was like he saw this whole other side he didn’t know existed.  
Until he was able to learn more, Harry just did what Remus advised, and did what he had to do; he waited until Remus was further away before he decided that being stark naked was more comfortable!

He wasn't anticipating on what came right after he did that...


	13. 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry learns a little more of himself, and being a mutant wizard.

Chapter Thirteen

“Severus?”  
The other man turned his head ever so slightly, showing that he heard and acknowledged his mate’s approach.  
“How is he?”

Remus gave a very quick glance over to where Harry had been, before entering deeper into the shallow cave, (hidden just perfectly among the trees by the lake).  
“Like any other mutant who has gone through the same transition; however it might be worth keeping an extra closer eye on him, being that he’s from the same clutch as Calypso was, and we know what happened there.”

Lightly clenching his hand into a soft fist, Severus grimaced at this memory that continues to haunt him.  
He, along side with Remus, watched those eggs hatch; six of the eight had broken through their shells; witnessing _his_ (and Remus’s) children being ‘born’!  
The two that didn’t hatch had died before they could reach that stage. The White Coats weren’t even that sensitive, just taking the unhatched eggs away to immediately begin examining as to why they didn’t survive; going as far as forcing Severus to watch them crack open the ostrich eggs and...

Just remembering what he saw still made Severus’s heart ache; they were two boys – potential sons – had they had the chance to develop and form properly, by which they had not.  
It would be the same story for most of the ones that had been able to reach hatching stage.  
They were told about how only Calypso had survived; to find out, many years later, that one other had survived and how everything was forged from his date of birth to how he got to where he ended up.

_‘Harry James Potter’_ was _**not**_ born on the thirty-first of July, as proclaimed. He was _**not**_ the son of Lily and James Potter. He was born on the thirtieth of June, the same day as Calypso, hatched from a cassowary’s egg, one hour before Calypso, (the last to successfully hatch out), made her entry.  
It hurt for Severus to know that he knew something didn’t feel right when they told him how the one and only surviving son had died! Especially when they refused to allow him and Remus to see the body for themselves, like they had with all the others!  
Yet, they knew that he was ‘alive’ before all of this. They saw him, held him... trying to figure out what he ought to be named, as they were given permission to name all the others, including the ones that didn’t hatch.

This was perhaps just as painful on Remus, too.  
He had to watch someone else raise his son! In the belief that he was the product of Lily and James Potter’s marriage! He knew that they had been expecting, the due date was set for the early days of August; Remus just couldn’t remember the exact date, it was either the third or the fourth, not that it mattered.  
Remus remembered asking certain questions, as he had known James to be a male bearer and Lily was female sire, meaning either could have become pregnant or sire their own children. (Something he kept from Severus, not a deliberate thing, more of a keeping the privacy of his friends, even from his own partner).  
What was answered didn’t give any suspicion; yet... something was off.

_Way off._

Some of the compelling clues, though Remus didn’t think much of it, until now, was whenever James and Lily would call him over – against the ‘warnings’ from Dumbledore that someone close was out to sell them out to Voldemort.  
The other was how the old wizard conned Severus.  
Oh... there was a prophecy alright!

Severus did hear has much as he could – as he was set up – before being accompanied out of the Hog’s Head tavern.  
The convenience of how two families had children born at the end of July; yet when Remus sighted Harry five days after his supposed birth, the babe didn’t look that new. He wasn’t still covered in vernix, nor did he have a newborn scent; if anything, Harry smelled as though he had been born earlier, but he wasn’t going to be question a set of new parents who were thrilled by arrival of their new child.  
Even more on how much the baby was clearly doted on and cared for.

“How could they do that to us?” Severus then mutters, removing Remus from his musings. “They knew he wasn’t theirs and they...”  
“I wish I knew, Severus,” Remus replies truthfully, resting against the cave wall, hands in his pockets, eyes still on his mate, who was sitting down against the opposite wall, hunched a little. “What matters is that we now know that our son is alive; he will learn of the truth, we will give him at least tonight, or even until tomorrow, before speaking to him of what he needs to know, that is if he doesn’t figure it out before then.”

Severus looks at Remus with his violet tinged eyes. “How can you be so sure he will believe us? Especially after on how I have treated him... in this belief that he was...”

“However, James was the one who started to put things together and did start trying to reach out to us in the month leading up to that night,” Remus interjects. “It was no secret that Lily was the one who was pregnant with their child, she did have all the tell tale signs. You cannot deny that he was turning into being someone on your side, too, even regretting his past stupidity.”

There was no hint of incense coming from Remus. He was nothing but calm and understanding, he knew of the history between his mate and Potter, he never denied it. There were many occasions where Remus did pull James up from his antics, doing his best to do the same where Black was concerned, (who was perhaps more zealous than Potter ever was); being disappointed within himself that he didn’t do much during the incident after the OWL exam, but made up for it tenfold after that.

“I just want to know what happened,” says a crestfallen Severus, and adding. “I also hope he forgives me for being the way I had been toward him.”  
Remus had known Severus for so long that he knew on just how much his mate genuinely had a real true heart.  
Sure, he had to put on a persona, which was to protect himself and whoever he needed to, but deep down he gave a damn!  
“Give it time, Trésor,” Remus says kindly.

###

Gritting his teeth, Harry let out strained exclaim, trying to get through this feeling pulsating through him; clenching his eyes firmly, while his hand did want it had to.  
It wasn’t as though he was really a stranger to touching himself, but this was a whole different level for him. He needed something more, he didn’t understand why he needed to; only that he did!  
The newly maturing Mutant hadn’t left the water, he was getting used to the addition of gills and being able to breathe underneath the wet surface; along with this inkling that he didn’t fully recognise, for it had been buried deeply within him, that was until now.

Harry observes through slightly squinted eyes the semen coming out of him, but he felt... wet?  
Not from the water wet, a different sort of wet, between his legs.  
This confused the hell out of him.  
With a trembling hand, Harry moved his fingers slowly, carefully...

He didn’t even know that he had made any sound, only that he saw Remus and Severus emerging from the trees and bushes, where they had gone, both extremely concerned and was about to attempt to go closer to where Harry was – which wasn’t too far from the large rocks he had been before, only more in the water.  
This sent Harry into an even further freak out.  
“_No!_ Don’t come closer! _Please!_”  
The two older wizards obeyed this.  
It wasn’t hard to see that the poor boy was scared and didn’t even know what to actually do.

Having to have gone over this multiple times in the past, this wasn’t new. They went at the pace of the newly evolving mutant. Harry was going to be no different, even with them now knowing who he was to them.  
“I...” Harry hesitates. “I... I... um... I don’t know what is happening to me.” The fresh memory of what his own fingers found, between his legs, tucked behind his scrotum, it was almost too much to bear, yet he wanted to understand what was going on. “But... It’s awkward for me to say exactly...”  
“You can talk to us, Harry,” Remus speaks in a calming manner. “We might be able to assist you; you’re not the first we’ve helped in this sort of situation, as alarming as it may be for you right now, whatever it is, we will also not take it personally if you do not explain straight away, as these things can and do take time to process, how much you need at a time depends on you.”

Harry could see from his position that neither Remus, nor Severus, has moved from where they had stopped near the edge of the lake. They were concerned, yes, (and somewhat staggering to Harry to see Professor Snape to be like this toward him, and he couldn’t fully comprehend why it didn’t actually bother him as much as he might have in the past, at least not straight away, he couldn’t), but he could hear it within Remus’s tone, and by the expressions on the men’s faces that they were, indeed, respecting this boundary that had placed up.

A boundary Harry had the say in; this helped him ease a little.  
“I don’t know if I am guy anymore,” he found himself blurting, feeling his face going warm with humiliation, expecting to be laughed at, or worse, attacked and ostracised.  
But to his surprise, (and perhaps relief), there was no sound of laughter; instead he saw, from what he was able to make out from whatever lighting was available, though it was still night time, expressions of knowing and understanding from both men.  
It was Severus who chose to address the teen, his voice was kind as he spoke, explaining to Harry how he was still very much male, but had the extraordinary ability to bear children; and that because of this he is meant to be protected.

“It’s seen as a prized gift, especially after it had become almost a rarity due to troubles a couple of generations ago, where our kind had to repress such genetics and produce offspring that were, for lack of a better term, ordinary, in the sense of breeding. Siring females and bearing males weren’t to be found; for fear of what would happen to them should they fall into the wrong hands.  
“Such repression is only now starting to regress, as our kind had seen the need to rise once more. Unfortunately, due to corruption, secrecy is the best way about this, until it is classed as safe enough to open ourselves. Only the true allies to the Forgotten know and follow the laws that have been written.  
“Alas, we have but a small amount in our corner; sadly there are plenty who want nothing more than to exploit us for their own gain.”

“Why?” Harry justifiably asked.  
“The belief that our abilities to adapt and pass on certain genetics to help progress the lines, especially anyone of the Wizarding world, ought to be controlled, especially where breeding is of concern,” Remus answers.

The look of shock appeared on Harry’s face, he wanted to put into words then and there he didn’t want this Tempus maturitatem, he was terrified of the thought of that happening to him; particularly after Severus had given explanation to him on what was going on with that part of his body.  
Maybe if someone had of told him of this before, he might have been able to get used to the knowledge of what was meant to come, instead of getting a major crash course as it was occurring right now.  
However, from what he has been told so far, the teen seemed to see the dilemma of being exposed.

Going on a hunch; Harry asked before he could stop himself if the two older wizards had been taken advantage of.  
He really wanted to shrink away after the words came out of his mouth; however he noticed that neither was enraged with this question, if anything, they understood why such a query was asked.  
Severus astonished Harry when he was the one to respond; “Short answer is yes.”

There wasn’t going to be much elaboration on details right away, this was sensed, but Harry had a better understanding; even this unforeseen sympathy he didn’t know he would have for the man who gave him such a hard time in the past.  
Along with another feeling that was arising, one the young mutant teenager couldn’t quite put his finger on.

“More of what you would like to know can be discussed at a later time,” Remus chose to speak up. “When you are comfortable and ready enough to leave the lake, Harry, we will provide a space to rest, or even sleep.”  
This worried Harry; “But what about Hogwarts?”  
Both men shook their heads at this, with Remus answering him.  
“You have no need to worry about that. We have put in measures that keep young mutants safe during this period. Madam Pomfrey has already been notified and has started doing what is needed while we are here with you.”

At the flick of Severus’s wand, a fresh set of comfortable looking clothing appeared and was neatly placed on the set of rocks that was closest to them. They didn’t wish to approach the teen when he may not want to be, plus they were positioned close to the area of where sleeping and living was possible; so when Harry was willing, he would be shown to where to go.

Meanwhile, back over on the other side of the Atlantic...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The following chapters may or may not be requiring a warning, as I am yet to write them.  
I am split between pathways, trying to figure how to finally bring these two worlds together, and eventually reuniting this family.  
Until then, I hope you've been intrigued as much as possible.


	14. 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Raphael gives Leonardo a few words of wisdom.
> 
> Harry remembers something

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _ Notice: The characters may feel as though they're slightly out of character. But I think this whole story seems to lean that way_

Chapter Fourteen

Michelangelo felt Calypso shifting a little after the forty winks she had taken, snuggled right up against him, wrapped in his arms.  
He nuzzles her tenderly. “How are you feeling, my love?”  
“Mmm, a little more settled down,” she replies, yawning and stretching out as much as she could muster, (Mikey had loosened his grip just enough to let her do this). “For now, as I don’t how much longer this will last for.”  
With a gentle trace along her jaw line with his fingers, Mikey softly coaxes Caly until their lips touched.

The two had been in the cavern for the entire day; partly because the sun had risen up and it wasn’t exactly safe to leave, while there were ways around that, Calypso was still very much vulnerable in her state, it didn’t matter that Michelangelo had mated with her in the wee hours of the morning, he needed to make absolute his claimant over Calypso was solid, plus the simple reality is that she had only just started at that point.

Several times over the course of the day the pair had been following Calypso’s waves of intensity; she would start slow, building up, Michelangelo would oblige to what she needed, how she needed it, when she needed it.  
“Do you feel comfortable enough to leave this cavern?” he gently asks.  
Calypso thought for a moment.

Her voice was small sounding. “I think so. I know we need to leave here at some point... and go back home.”  
“Only if you are up to being back at the Lair, Caly, I do know of other places we could hide away until you’re much more settled down.”  
“But wouldn’t everyone else worry? Or... get mad?”  
“Worry? Probably. Getting mad would be a waste of time, though. You chose me, Caly; I accepted the role of being your mate and father your children,” he places a hand on her tummy. “Plus... I love you; if anyone has a problem with that they can kiss my shell.”  
Calypso smiles at this. “They would have to get in line, because I’d be kissing it first.”

Mikey chuckled, before they kissed again.  
Slowly, they began to ready themselves to leave the cavern.

###

“Where the heck have you been?”

This was the reception Michelangelo and Calypso had received when they arrived back at the Lair, by Leonardo, who had his arms crossed tightly in front of his chest, looking pretty agitated.  
“We woke up to find you both missing this morning, and have been missing for the entire day!”  
“We hadn’t been missing, Leo, we had been hauled up somewhere safe the entire time,” was the response Michelangelo gave in an even tone.  
“What do you mean somewhere safe? The Lair -”

“Leonardo, I would suggest that you refrain from trying to pry any deeper than necessary,” spoke the calming tone of Master Splinter, as he entered the living area.  
His expression didn’t fully display much, but Michelangelo knew straight away that his father knew exactly why they had been missing.

Leonardo then notices the way the pair was standing; Calypso was very close to the orange wearing Turtle, one of Michelangelo’s arms around the back of her; a hand gently on her waist, her own hand was resting on top of it.  
Calypso’s scales were laced with a very light golden tint over the greens, whereas the other colours had dwindled to resembling tiny flecks of extra sparkle shine; her hair was now looking something that would be best described as being a rainbow mixed in with the blonde.

There was a glint of sorts coming from the blue wearing Turtle; “Wait... you...”

Though he knew Calypso was pretty capable of standing her ground, (and seeing it on many occasions), Michelangelo steps forward and shields her by placing himself in front of her, still keeping a protective hand on her; the expression on his face was one Leonardo hadn’t really known to see from his youngest brother.  
Full of candour and word of warning, Michelangelo didn’t need to speak in order to get the message across; Leonardo got it very clearly, and knew that it didn’t matter how he felt, or what he said, Calypso was Michelangelo’s mate, and will not hesitate to drop anyone who dares to try and interfere in any shape or form.

“Leonardo, I suggest you find somewhere else to be for now,” Splinter speaks firmly, seeing this and sensing that his eldest son might do something that he may regret, whatever it was.

With a quick glimpse of disappointment, Leonardo took a step back, before turning on his heels and walked away, passing Splinter on his way out of the living area.  
Splinter waits for a moment before moving closer to Michelangelo and Calypso.  
“Sensei -” Michelangelo went to speak, only for Splinter to hold his hand up, silencing him.

The Rat’s voice held no aversion, or any other reaction thought Mikey might have expected; which was with an air of knowing and understanding.  
“There is no need to explain yourself, Michelangelo, as there wouldn’t be much point when, though as subtly as you may have been, I have been sensing and noticing your actions before this moment. Not to mention the quietly controlled tension between your brothers and you. Knowing the reasoning behind it.”

Splinter catches sight of Calypso lower her gaze, looking guilt-ridden and apologetic. The father rat shakes his head at this.  
“You have nothing to be ashamed of, Calypso,” he tells her, kindly. “I have said to you that, whatever happens, you will always have a home, here. You had followed your instinct, though it would have been preferable if this took place at a much later age, it is clear this wasn’t ever going to be the case.” He looks at Michelangelo. “All I can do is to continue to support you, as I always have.”

Neither of the pair knew what to say, however it was clear on how grateful they were.

###

Raphael could hear the frustrations coming from the dojo, so he followed them to see Leonardo going at it with a Wing Chun.  
Naturally his need for perfection was there; being the way the blue wearing turtle had always been, plus being the eldest and the leader would have that affect.  
“What’s eatin’ you, Leo?” Raphael dared to ask, walking further into the room.

Not breaking his stance, Leonardo fired out with; “_He’s not mature enough for her!_ He will only want to fool around and make her unhappy! Or leave her when things get too much. _She should have_ considered her options better, before spreading her legs _to him!_ She is a fool for choosing him, when he doesn’t deserve her!”

The Turtle in red couldn’t drop his jaw fast enough upon hearing what his older brother had just said.  
“_Leonardo! What da heck did cha just fire out of yer mouth?_” Raphael’s tone was between flabbergasted and disapproving.

Leonardo stopped, suddenly realising exactly what he had just said and regretted it. After he inhaled and exhaled for a brief moment, he spoke in a slightly more controlled tone. “Calypso... she... she picked Michelangelo.”

He peers over at Raphael, who was standing at the corner of the practice mat he was on, arms crossed, brows raised, with an expression that was still giving him the look of scorn, as well as...  
“You’re not surprised by this?”

Raphael shakes his head. “No, Leo, I am not. Sure, there have been possibilities, but let’s face the reality shall we? At the end of the day, Caly was always going to make the final decision on who would eventually hook up with her, it’s been brewing for days... weeks even.”

“But... he’s... while I’m...”

“You’re what, Leo?” Raphael challenged, getting moderately irate over this version of Leonardo in front of him. “I never thought I would ever say dis to yer, Leonardo, but grow up! You speak of Mike about not bein’ mature for Calypso? Take a good look in da mirror, bro! Just because yer da older brother and leader doesn’t make you automatic front runner for da chicks!  
“The fact that-char spoke that way about not just our own brother, but about a girl, after everyting Splinter taught us, you ought-a be ashamed!  
“So yer ticked off that she didn’t see you the way she does with Mikey. Which is normal, I guess, but it doesn’t give ya da right ter say dat about them! Ever!  
“Now, I am going to turn around and walk outta here and leave ya in the hopes that you’ll get ova yarself!”

Genuine to his word, Raphael turned on his heels and left the silently seething, but equally subdued Leonardo standing there in his wake.  
Leonardo didn’t want to admit that Raphael was precise in his wording.  
Calypso was simply doing what any other in her position would do, no matter the species; choosing the mate who would benefit the greater odds of healthy offspring, and being that she needed to be with a life partner, (according to whatever documentation that had been found, and she didn’t even see those, just knew in her own way), Calypso would want to be with someone who would provide the comforts she needed, and give it in return.

She did look at Leonardo, she did look at Raphael, in a reserved analysing sort of way; neither was what she was looking for in the right mate; Michelangelo was.  
He, (Leonardo), really needed clear his head and work through this unfair disappointment he had. Though, he was no longer dissatisfied in on being chosen, he was frustrated in how he dealt with it.  
With a quick examination of what he needed to do, the blue wearing Turtle found his way out of the Lair and going for a stroll around the sewers, which eventually took him to a quiet area in Central Park.

###

Elsewhere, in the privacy of the room he was given, Harry settles down on the comfortable mattress, head on the pillow, drawing he covers up to his chin. The clothes he had been provided with were made of soft silk, allowing his skin to breathe, especially in particular areas.

The teenager thought over on what he had been told and experienced thus far, wondering what else was to come.  
Feeling his eyes droop heavily, Harry began to nod on off to the realms of sleep.  
Or at least, he thought it was.

Since when did he start dreaming of a set of bright, heating lights?  
The feeling of sudden cold hitting his wet, naked skin, reacting to it... only to be suddenly feeling a gentle hand upon him, a soothing voice...  
“I’m here, my son; Daddy’s got you.”

Harry ‘feels’ himself being lifted, the sounds he was making stifled a little, calming down even more when he was held close to the chest of the person holding him. The one who identified himself as his ‘Daddy’.  
What he saw next threw him out of whatever stupor he was in.

###

Severus moves his gaze from the book he had been ‘reading’, to see Harry standing at the doorway of the living area of the little house that he and Remus shared, (that was in the protective area they had taken Harry to).  
From the way Harry was looking at him, the older man could see straight away the tears of confusion.

“I remember you,” the teen says in a strained whisper, barely enough for Severus to hear him. “I don’t understand how, but... I know... and I remember.”  
Severus had a lump in his throat that nearly prevented him from speaking the following words.  
“Remember what?”  
Harry’s lip betrayed him, trembling as he uttered, “Daddy.”

He didn’t even remember seeing him moving from his spot, but he felt the arms of the one they tore him away from some time after he was born.


	15. 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry learns even more...

Chapter Fifteen

The imprinting of Severus’s face had been etched into his memory, it had been there from the moment he had been hatched; but when he couldn’t see him, instead seeing these strangers, and hearing them call him some other name he didn’t know; feeling so unsettled for was felt like a very long time, until he felt warmth again, but it wasn’t the warmth he had grown familiar with; the smells were different, no matter how kind they were to him.

Yet, every now and again, he would hear and scent the familiarity of someone in the area. He wanted to go to them. Why didn’t they take him?  
Harry had been made to believe that he was the son of Lily and James Potter for so long, accept as true that he was the nephew to Lily’s sister, and was forced to be within her care and that of Petunia’s god awful husband, being hounded mercilessly by their son.  
Deep down, he always felt something was off.

At first, when he learned that he was a Wizard, Harry assumed that this was why he felt something had been missing. Heck! The moment he entered the magic world he was bombarded left, right and centre on how much he looked like James Potter. Except for the green eyes, being that of Lily Potter, née Evans.  
But when he saw the Potion Master for the first time in the Great Hall on his very first night at Hogwarts Castle, he couldn’t drop this inkling he was feeling.  
Sadly that was quickly dashed a few times by various actions that eroded Harry’s senses, believing that there was nothing but spite between him and the infamous Professor Snape.

Then when Professor Lupin arrived for his third year, the young Gryffindor’s brain practically went into overload with a familiar scent. Once again, Harry put this down to being effected by other things, such as the Dementors of all things.  
What was remarkable was, while he really despised the dark hooded creatures of impending doom and despair, Harry couldn’t help but feel a little shift in his mind. He couldn’t describe it, nor did he give it much formulation, as it just didn’t make sense to him, nor did he know who the heck to even talk to about this. Darn it, he was left in the dark for so long and trying to catch up to what he should have known all his life.  
After having to have dealt with so much pain and neglect and falsehood, it was as if this change within himself, in finding out what he was and the happenings to his body, then being here, away from Hogwarts, and...

Now, here he was, being held by one of his biological parents, bawling his eyes out.

Severus, himself, wasn’t expecting Harry to even figure it out, not by a long shot. Yet, when he saw those just green and silver eyes starting to well and the expression of just wanting to understand what had happened and why, and just remembering who he - his maternal father – was, though they only ever spent three weeks together, before Severus and Remus were told of the ‘sudden tragic death’ of their son, the older man got out of his seat, the book sliding down to the floor, and found his way over to the son he had been denied, and wrapped his arms around him, drawing him close.

Remus had entered to see this exchange; seeing his partner resting his cheek on top of the teen’s head, eyes lightly closed, just comforting the boy, as the tears flowed and the body shakes a little.  
Sensing his entry, Severus opened his eyes and looks at Remus, telepathically telling him what just happened.  
Their son had returned to them.

###

Morning arrived with a slow sensation, Harry woke up to find himself tucked up in the bed he had been given, in the room allocated to him.  
Sitting up, stretching and rubbing the sleep from his eyes, the fourteen-year-old thought over all that had transpired thus far; learning that he was a mutant Wizard, also known as the Forgotten and going into Tempus maturitatem, (which he was still, at present, experiencing).  
Perhaps the most bold in his forefront mind, however, was when the truth, without warning, pushed forth and...

Harry saw him sprawled out awkwardly in the lounger that was in the far corner of the room, near the window that was open, allowing a gentle breeze to flow on through, brushing the curtains.  
No words had been exchanged last night after the teen had walked to the little living area and said what he had, only actions, which led to him just sitting with Severus and Remus until he did go to sleep.  
Not that he didn’t want to talk, he did; Harry just didn’t know what to really say, nor did they, it seemed. Only knowing that they had been cheated out of so many years, and it was completely unforeseen for them to realise that Harry would have even remembered them at all.

Deciding to let Severus be, Harry pushes the sheets and blankets off of him and exits the bed and room. Reaching the kitchen wasn’t too difficult from here, finding Remus was already up and about, making himself busy.

“Good morning, Harry,” says the older, noticing the younger entering the quaint area.  
Harry replied a somewhat hesitant ‘good morning’ in reply, not really knowing how to even act or feel right now.  
Remus gives him an understanding expression, as he offers the boy a mug of freshly poured tea; Harry accepts it.  
“Just as before, the pace in how you wish to proceed with everything from this point on is up to you,” Remus did say. “Including on what you want to know... if you want to know.”  
Harry thought of the words spoken to him, taking a sip of the steaming tea.

“Why was I taken away?”  
“We would like to know that ourselves, Harry. You were deemed healthy and thriving by the White Coats, a few hours later, we were told you weren’t; we were denied to know how and why, plus to see you like we had been with the rest who has passed away.”  
Harry could hear the sorrow in Remus’s tone.

“The rest?”  
Remus gives a little nod. “You were one of eight all together from our last successful conception, one of six to be born, but one of two to survive the first week after hatching.”  
That confused the heck out of Harry, with a face to match. “I came from an egg?”  
“You didn’t originally, at first,” said Remus, evenly.  
This baffled the teen even more, the older wizard carefully explains.

“To try and save from further confusing you, though you still might be, you were conceived like any other typical way of conception, with a bit of help, which details can be danced over later; during your development you were placed into separate unfertilised eggs, at least that is what the words were flying about, at the same time had modifications done.  
“It was not for the first time the White Coats had done this to us, and they really weren’t willing to stop until they got what they wanted.”

“What was that exactly?” Harry nervously asks, doing his best to comprehend on what he was being told.

“To exploit the mutated wizard genes for their own gain to get them; turning them into highly modified mutant wizard servants to be suitable for the Unworthy.”  
Harry and Remus look over from the little kitchen bench to see Severus at the doorway, he had little bags under his eyes from not really sleeping well, and a face that bore someone who had really gone through a lot of pain and had been dealing with the aftermath ever since.  
“That is the theory we are going with,” said Remus, giving Severus a mug of fresh coffee that he had also whipped up along with the tea.  
“Why?”

“We’ll let you know once we learn that ourselves,” Severus answers, sitting at the little table; “If we ever get that knowledge. We only know that this exploitation has been going on for many years, the Ministry is turning a blind eye to it, never mind the laws that were written in the first place to protect us from such mistreatment, and many have suffered and are still suffering because of the unspoken greed for our abilities from those who were unfortunate enough to skip out of the genetics that make them susceptible to such powers and capabilities that come from being a Mutated Wizard, or Witch.”

“Who would want to do that?” Harry does ask.

Remus and Severus look at each other for a split moment, contemplating whether they really should tell him. Wanting him to be aware and protect himself won, so they told him of a man named Robert Stokes, and why they called the helpers White Coats or Hired Help, as well as the biggest one, which caused Harry’s jaw to drop.

“Is that why...?”  
“Why boys have been asked to present themselves to the Hospital Wing to be examined? Yes” Severus replies with a grim and apologetic voice, looking at the teenager with the same eyes. “Up until now, there have been measures in place to prevent this; somehow, the Headmaster has gotten around this, and we know it’s not just the boys he will be targeting, anyone who presents with Mutated Blood in some way, no matter how minimal, will be looked at with the potential for being taking advantage of.”

“But why did he just ask for the boys?” Harry was earnestly trying his best to wrap his head around this bolt from the blue, (for him it was).

Severus didn’t hold back the answer to this, though it wasn’t hard to miss the animosity and grief as he spoke. “Because there is a likelihood of a multiple conception, it is not uncommon for male bearers to have twins; due to this it’s been a belief that the offspring are dubbed more powerful and adaptable to change, even before they’re even truly born. Plus there is the added factor that because there is a high chance of multiples, the Unworthy deem it fit to force the males into carrying more than what they normally would naturally, in order to get their armies or whatever they’re wanting.”

He took a slow sip of his coffee, but didn’t savour the bitter-beans, being in a form of semi-deep thought.  
“Again, its speculation,” Remus said, giving a worrying frown to his partner.  
Cluing up that this was a sensitive subject, Harry went to apologise for asking these questions; he was just as promptly told otherwise.  
“Questions and answers are basically a routine for us,” says Remus.

“Except we weren’t expecting this turn of events to happen the way they did, and even then, why shouldn’t you require the information that would prove useful or helpful?” Severus adds in, using a tone Harry still wasn’t entirely used to, even now in knowing that this was one of his real biological parents sitting right in front of him, with the other standing next to him. “Especially since we were all led to believe in something that has been false for all these years, who wouldn’t want to know?”

Harry did see the point Severus made; musing on what he had been told thus far.  
That was when he recalled something Remus had said to him; he looks at the man standing next to him.  
“You mentioned that I was one of two that survived in being born?”  
Remus confirms this with little nods. “I did.”

“She was one of two girls from the last and final batch, and the last to be hatched,” Severus was almost speaking on automatic pilot. “The only one we were allowed to raise up until a certain point, before they tried to wield their insane ideas of how to progress, particularly in how she was growing to be how they were hoping her to become.”

After all this time in wishing that he had a sibling like his friend Ron had, it turned out that he had one! A sister! Harry softly bit his lower lip at this.  
“Where is she now?” he decided to ask, for he didn’t know if he wanted to know what Severus had meant with his last words of her ‘growing to be how they were hoping to become’.

Giving his mate the relief of answering, Remus responded. “From what we have last heard she is somewhere in the United States, we don’t know where exactly, as it’s been the top mission to keep her from being found, at least until she regains her deliberately scrabbled memory.”  
Harry didn’t know how to ask the questions going on in his head right now, but Remus figured it, and continued, keeping an eye on Severus as he did so.

“Her name is Calypso, and as you’ve been told, she was the only one we were able to raise, though that wasn’t as free as one would have been led to believe, not in the place we were stuck in. When we learned of what they were intending, especially when they put a memory blocking charm on her, there was no other choice but to get her out of there, along with a few others that have been in the facility, at the known risk that we may never hear from her again.  
“But, there is a large chance that while she is away from the island, and staying out of SAROHE hands, the charm will deteriorate, as it’s a temporary one where it needs to be maintained after every so often to keep affect. The other is so long as we haven’t heard anything from certain people we know who are trying to recapture her, she’s, as far as we know, safe, wherever she’s currently ended up.”

“How do you know she’s safe?” Harry carefully enquired.  
“We may not be with her and a good far distance away, but we can sense her moods.”  
“Think of it as an intuitional bond,” said Severus, “or parental instinct.”  
“Why not try and find her yourself?” says Harry.

“Believe us when we say we’d love to; however I am forcefully bound to comply to a certain great wizard, meaning if I so much as try and leave the country he would know, as he’s got a tracking spell on me and if he gets any wind of where Calypso is by following me, it wouldn’t matter how great of powers I have, they’ve been heavily restricted.  
“They can’t use me anymore for what they’re after, so they’re after the next best thing, and I’d be damned if I let them carry their plans on her!” Severus slammed his fist on the table, voice beyond irate, causing Harry to jump a little.  
Then adds after a moment’s thought, Severus appends; “Or you.”

“Me?” Harry replies with slight alarm.

Now leaning against the counter, Remus enlightens the teen, keeping his manner composed; “Yes, Harry, you. It would not go beyond the theory that the possible reason to have taken you away in such a manner and try and prevent us from finding out about you, and vice-versa with you finding about us, is to catch you off guard and take advantage of your Tempus praeparatio. Particularly now you’ve learned that you can become pregnant.”

Harry gritted his teeth at this reminder; he wasn’t yet ready to come to terms with that about himself. However, was grateful that he was being told all the same, now that he was aware of who to look out for, and why.  
“Is the reason the same for you... er...?” Harry seriously had no idea what to call Remus, (or Severus); he may have uttered ‘Daddy’ last night, upon his weird memory surge, now it was something of reasonable awkwardness for the teen.

“You are under no obligation to call us Dad, father, whatever, if you do not wish to, our actual names would be just fine, as it wouldn’t be fair on you, when you’re still processing everything,” Remus still maintains his fair tone, even giving a comforting smile as he says this.  
“However, while at Hogwarts, for now at least, it would be safer to still refer me as Professor,” Severus does pipe up.  
Harry could see the reason behind that and nods.

“As for the answer to your question, it’s a similar conundrum, though I am not under the same constrictions as Severus is, I am still very much bound to stay in the United Kingdom, thanks to a certain debacle that happened that night when the truth came out with Sirius and Pettigrew.  
“If you remember, I was exposed for being a werewolf, and as a result, word flew about and has prevented me from being able to get out of the country without the possibility of being spotted, or tipping some magical surveillance I am sure they would have, because werewolves are not allowed to leave the shores of either Scotland, Wales or England once they’re put on some alert list, some would be in Northern Ireland, but they’re a very small number and for whatever reason, they’re harder to keep an eye on, because once they venture into Ireland, the British Ministry can’t really do much, as they’d have to try and deal with the Irish Ministry. While they’re on friendly terms due to various reasons, including Hogwarts, Quidditch and important trade, the Irish really do not put up with the likes of Fudge and whoever else trying to tell them how to handle the non-Wizards, or half-breeds.”

“Fine points on that later,” Severus mutters, pretty much hinting for his mate to get on with it.  
“Didn’t you -”

Severus vigorously shook his head, his expression hardening for a split moment, before he realised the innocence of the fair question from the boy. He promptly softened his appearance, but didn’t fully let go of the original feelings that laced the surface, as he spoke;  
“I would never, _ever_ do that to Remus! The stupidity of that night was beyond sensibility and the aftermath... Of course things could have been handled better, but the point is, I wasn’t even at the breakfast table that morning when certain news about Remus was leaked to my own House! This placed him in just as much jeopardy as I was already in.”

Remus goes on to elucidate further; “You see, unlike the typical werewolf, I can control my transformations and myself for that matter, due to being from one of the Mutated Wizarding lines. The potion you would have seen that day in my office is similar to the Wolfsbane Potion, only it’s more to help me from being affected by the Dementors, for they can cause the misfortunate chance of my becoming what you saw that night. Not always, but it was a precaution to try and prevent it.  
“Plus normal Wolfsbane would have turned me into an actual werewolf, or at least not where I can control myself, as much as I’d like to; ironic really.”

“And before you ask,” Severus pipes up, already ‘seeing’ the next question coming from Harry; “The whole animosity toward Remus was a ruse, in order to keep certain people from causing ill will on us, if they knew. Other than the ones you now know.”  
“The animosity toward Sirius, however, is very real,” Remus does add.  
Harry would have wanted to ask why, but he refrained, guessing he could find that out in another time, when things aren’t so... what’s the word for it?  
What he did ask though was again a fair question. “Is... is Sirius still by Godfather? I am sorry if...”

“In all matters and purposes, yes,” Severus does answer, he didn’t seem too fond, but he wasn’t withholding some ‘relief’ if that was to describe his manner of tone. “Even if it turned out he wasn’t after all of this, I wouldn’t stop whatever bond that has transpired, because you did dote on the man from when you were with James and Lily, from what I have heard through various sources.”  
“Not that Severus would fully admit it, he did see the same affections Sirius had, and was impressed how he did his best to keep you safe, too.”

Remus almost chuckles at the unassuming from Severus, it was covered very swiftly by the dark haired man crossing his arms and pressing his lips, trying to keep from ‘admitting it’ as just mentioned.  
“Is there anything else you would like to know?” Severus does ask.  
Harry thought for a moment.  
“My name isn’t really Harry, is it?”

Remus and Severus both shake their heads.  
“Harry was the name James and Lily was to give their own son, what exactly happened for them to lose him and you winding up with them, we do not know,” Remus tells him, keeping even.  
“Gabriel,” said Severus, half-absentmindedly. “Your name is Gabriel.”


	16. 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not in this chapter or the next one after this, which will be up in a moment or so after uploading this, things are going to start getting darker and uncomfortable, just as a fair warning.

Chapter Sixteen

“Where have you been, Harry?”  
“The infirmary,” Harry answers, he was sounding and looking quite exhausted, but otherwise alright, sitting with his friends at the Gryffindor Table.  
“For three entire days and you didn’t tell us?”  
“Come to think of it, a few others haven’t been seen on and off during the last few weeks,” Hermione points out, looking around the Great Hall, thinking on how odd it was.  
Harry shrugs at this, as he helped himself to some food; he knew the reason behind the disappearing students, and has promised to keep it quiet, for such information is delicate and not easy for it to be given to just anyone, even the closest of friends. For the time being, Hermione and Ron are simply going to have to be out of the loop.

“Yeah, I mean, where is Lee? I haven’t seen him since yesterday,” Ron asks.  
Lee Jordan, the best friend to Ron’s brothers, Fred and George, was usually at the table during breakfast, but he is nowhere to be seen.  
“He’d be around somewhere,” Harry lazily replies to this.  
He knew where Lee Jordan was, but wasn’t going to say anything.  
Lee Jordan had already gone through his Tempus maturitatem, but he was still in the vulnerable position of not having a mate, and he was apparently the kind that benefits best with a life mate, rather than a fling mate.  
To combat the moments of when a certain stage comes around that may cause such vulnerability – and not just to the likes of Lee, but may include those who have found their mates, or... to ‘help the other out with no strings attached’, the Forgotten are given straight access to the Sanctuary Forest, which is bigger than Harry first thought in the first number of hours of being there.

However, after exploring the place, from the lake, with its lagoons and rocks to the mini mountain, which was really a very big hill that was designed to appear like a mountain, complete with caves, cliffs and so on. Each and every part of it merged with each element that conveys to the Forgottens requirement; water, air, earth, fire.  
Harry learned that Lee was more drawn to the fire element, so he was more at home around the hot rocks that were at the near base of the mini mountain, designed to be something like a volcanic style bed, complete with life like lava and acid pools, but these weren’t the type that would produce the toxic gases or burn and melt upon impact, unlike a real volcano.  
Each and every single one like Harry and Lee were under a protection that was drawn up by Remus and Severus, and so far it’s never been broken, because of how iron clad they made it. Very similar to the Fidelius Charm, only more powerful, because it’s from the original source of where such powers and magic had came from.  
This had given Harry a greater insight to why the various students have ‘put up with’ Severus Snape’s antics, because it was mostly to keep unwanted attention away from them, choosing to this overbearing tyrant, when really... when he looks back at it all from the last three years, even to just before Harry, himself, had discovered the truth...

The Potions Master had no intention of scaring the bejesus out of Neville Longbottom, to where he became the boy’s boggart; true the situation could have been handled a hell of a lot better, even Severus admitted that, however the man did make amends for his actions, and it did escape Harry’s notice, until pointed out during conversation with the man he now knew to be one of his real fathers, that Neville was no longer afraid of being in the Potions classroom.  
“I took it upon myself to speak to him, with Professor McGonagall present, as I do not trust his grandmother very much, and made sure that, while Longbottom will not be one for Potions, he does know the different plants and their purposes for potions, so this helps in growing one aptitude while trying to improve another, if there is a chance, all the while not having him afraid.”  
“Why don’t you trust Neville’s grandmother?”  
Severus simply shakes his head, he had spoken too much, and he didn’t think Harry had the need to know, unless it was made available to him.

Harry shovels more food into his mouth, vaguely listening to his friends chatter up on their theories of where the missing students were going to, when he felt as though he was being watched.  
Lifting his head up, Harry examined where the feeling was coming from and that was when he saw the brilliant blue eyes behind a pair of half-moon spectacles staring right at him. An ice cold chill ran down the boy’s spine, what was even more chilling was to find that Professor Dumbledore was not the only one who was looking at him, but so was Professor Moody.  
Not wanting to make it obvious that he had seen them looking at him, Harry just ducked his head back down and continued to eat.  
“Harry, are you okay?” Hermione asks catching the tensed expression on her friend’s face.  
“Yeah... I just had a rough few days, is all, Hermione, and I guess I am still feeling it,” Harry quickly replies, doing his best to brush it off to nothing more than battling a stomach bug.  
Though Hermione looked as though she wasn’t exactly buying it, she didn’t press it, as worried as she was. Ron was oblivious, stuffing his mouth and trying to talk at the same time.

“I beg your pardon?” Hermione asks, giving the redhead a sharp piercing frown.  
Ron took a good few seconds just to swallow the enormous load, before repeating what he had said;  
“Professor Snape looks like he is about to curse someone!”  
He wasn’t wrong, the Potions Master, who had just sat down at the staff table looked deeply troubled and extremely pissed off; this worried Harry – a feeling he didn’t know he would ever feel for the older wizard, but...  
Funny how things happen when truth becomes a value.  
“I hope he is okay,” Hermione mutters.  
Ron makes a snort like sound; “Do we really care?”  
Harry holds his tongue, not ready to say anything... not yet... not when he promised, and he was still getting a handle of himself.  
But, he was concerned for Severus Snape.

###

One by one, over the course of the following days and into the weeks that seeped into the days of October, students were called to the Hospital Wing, being now made compulsory – and for the entire school, Dumbledore decided that it would be really beneficial for every student to have a full medical exam, not just those just turned thirteen.  
This was the cause of Professor Snape’s distress. Harry was learning fast on whom a few of the other Forgotten were; but many have learned to conceal themselves that only a certain Professor and Matron knew – and that was the point!  
True, there weren’t very many who did attend Hogwarts, from Harry’s understanding after speaking with Remus and Severus, but that didn’t mean that they – the Forgotten - weren’t still being hunted.

“So far all of the students who’ve been called do not possess the genes that would surpass, or if they did have any, they’re not in the dominant category, more or less carriers so to speak, which means that while they may not come out with being a Mutated Witch or Wizard, their future children could,” Remus had explained to Harry, when he had slipped into the Sanctuary. “Severus and Madam Pomfrey are planning to do what they can to cover any who are called in, which wouldn’t take too long after this point, and it’s not going to be easy, as the Headmaster has made it so that everything that gets documented is magically duplicated and sent to him, we also have a hunch that it’s not just him who would be getting copies.”  
(All those who’ve been founded and bought to the Sanctuary are welcome to come and go as they needed to... or in Harry’s case, as he pleased – but even then he was very careful and didn’t abuse this privilege).

“But... I thought medical records are confidential?”  
The sad irony on his paternal father’s face said it all; all Harry could do was sigh and bloody hope that no-one is exposed.  
“I don’t see what the whole worrying is about,” Ron commented after he had returned from his examination. “Sure, it’s a bit weird that it’s not just Madam Pomfrey doing the tests and stuff, but they didn’t seem to be much of a bother, except perhaps they could be a little more enthusiastic over a clean bill of health. Would love to know what is up with the White Coats they are wearing, as it’s not normal Wizarding clothes.”  
“White Coats?” Harry exclaims, sounding more alarmed than he should have intended.  
“Yeah, and I don’t think I’ve seen Snape be so... I don’t know how to even describe it,” said Ron.

Ron did not need to try, Harry was now understanding why Severus has been giving him and the others sudden ready access to the Sanctuary Forest.  
“It’s not exactly fool proof, but it will cause delay,” he remembers being told.  
“I hope he is okay,” Harry mutters under breath, but was overheard, given the snort from Ron and asking why he cared. “I just have a bad feeling about what is going on, that’s all, and some people are more affected by it.”  
Ron studies his friend, while Hermione had a more thoughtful expression. Harry manages to change the subject after saying that he needed to finish his Transfiguration homework and was having a bit of trouble with one of the questions, allowing for Hermione to pounce to help, while Ron sat back to try and swerve off doing his own work.

###

“You look cheerful this morning, Albus,” McGonagall comments seating herself next to the Headmaster.  
“Uh, indeed, I am, Minerva,” spoke the old Wizard, a twinkle in his eye.  
“Is it worth sharing?”  
Dumbledore just smiles in the way he usually does when he doesn’t wish to reveal too much, but just had to say enough to keep the Deputy Headmistress at bay, for he knew her stance on things and he was not willing to throw away any of the trust he had gained from her.  
“I am pleased to say that we have the final number of guests from each of the visiting schools for the Triwizard Tournament, the Minister of Magic himself has confirmed the secured transportation of what would be part of the first test, and the medical examinations are going smoothly.”  
He noted the slight pursing of Professor McGonagall’s lips with the last part, before asking what the first task was going to be.  
McGonagall was against the students having a Health check, as were a good number of the staff faculty for all sorts of reasons, but were put on to deaf ears and explained that it was now school policy and even the board had agreed to it.  
As Dumbledore and McGonagall spoke, as did those who were enjoying their breakfast, Severus Snape was down in the dungeons, desperately trying to open the door of his office; banging and pounding and doing all he could to hold back the tears.  
He had fucked up!  
It was a small little thing, but it was enough to have Dumbledore discover what had been going on and now...  
Severus feared of what could happen to the ones he vowed to protect, particularly now that he had just been reunited with one of his own flesh and blood.

###

A small group of students were being escorted to the Hospital Wing by men and women who were donning brilliant, but weird, white cloaks – at least to those who were not familiar with the design of them. (The Muggleborns knew them to be laboratory cloaks, but were confused as to why they were being worn in the Wizard world).  
Madam Pomfrey had worked tirelessly to keep each and every student’s dignity, and all effort to keep them safe; especially the ones who were with the Mutated genes – which was the reason to why the “extra hands” were within the castle to “give her a hand”, much to the Matron’s disgruntlement.

“I don’t care what you, or the rest of you lot want, I am not doing certain things to my patients that would cause distress!” she would argue over and over.  
Everything had been straight forward thus far, that was until Dumbledore caught wind of Harry Potter disappearing a few weeks gone by, and did some unwelcome digging, while Dumbledore had not discovered the Forest Sanctuary, (and he wouldn’t be able to), he did find something else out and requested – no demanded – for a certain number of students to be examined and re-examined!  
The Witches and Wizards who were allowed in by the Headmaster, himself, escorted the students into the Hospital Wing and there was no escaping what had to be done.

The doors were sealed shut and guarded, the parchment that Madam Pomfrey was forced to sign at the very beginning of the whole mandatory examination was presented to her, and each and every one of the students that had been bought in were taken to a bed and Madam Pomfrey was helpless as she watched the White Coats carry out the tests and examinations that she, herself, was meant to do on all of the students, but had been covering them up.  
Only seven were bought here, why this number, Pomfrey didn’t know, for she knew that there were a few more within the student body that had Mutated genes.  
She kept her tongue on the ones not discovered; fearing already on what was happening to the ones already being forced to strip down and endure the humiliation being poked and prodded and stared at.

True, certain areas weren’t to be touched, but it did not give any comfort, as they were still ‘checked’ by forcing their subjects to ‘show themselves’ to them.  
It was upon this when Pomfrey figured out why these seven.  
None of them had mates! Most of them had just gone through Tempus praeparatio over the past twelve months or so and finding the proper mates for their needs is scarce within the school.  
How these White Coats figured that out, let alone Dumbledore, she did not know, but the thought of what was to be planned for the “Unclaimed” left a stone cold feeling right in the pit of Pomfrey’s stomach.

“We’ll be taking them with us,” spoke the head of the White Coats.  
“No!” she tries to say, but due to the charm that had her frozen to the spot, it had muted her, too.  
The unwilling seven all with their wrists bound together with magical rope and still naked, were forced to their feet, led to form a single line by the White Coats, one of whom pulled a specialised Portkey and activated it, within seconds they had disappeared, leaving only Madam Pomfrey to unfreeze moments later; while down in the dungeons the door to Professor Snape’s office finally became unstuck, allowing Severus out.  
The very second it opened, the Potions Master hurried straight to the hospital wing to find the distraught Nurse, tears rolling down her eyes.  
She did not have to say anything, he already knew they were gone, but he had to know, uttering a single word.

“Who?”  
Pomfrey looks at Severus dead in the eye as she named each of them, one at a time;  
“Willow Bellamy, Samantha Quinton, Delia Troy, Sander Dias, Lee Jordan, Draco Malfoy and... Gabriel...”  
Harry, though to the few who do know and in strict privacy, had chosen to go by the name that was originally his.  
Hearing the names slip from the Matron’s lips, Severus Snape clenched his fists, and he knew straight away that the arrogance of the whole move to do this, and the belief that these people could get away with it.

Oh... they had made a **huge** mistake.  
“Poppy, I wouldn’t be asking if -”  
Madam Pomfrey puts her hands up to wave them and cuts him off. “You need not to ask, I am on it.”  
Forever grateful for the endless help this woman had provided over the many years and was still doing, Severus wholeheartedly thanked her.  
“Wait until we have them all home, then you can truly thank me!”


	17. 17

Chapter Seventeen

“You cannot be seriously suggesting that!”  
“Who invited you into the conversation?”  
“Leaving the Lair is a bad idea, Mikey!”  
“I wasn’t even talking to you, Leo!”  
“Enough!”  
Leonardo and Michelangelo both fall silent at their father’s firm gruff voice. Splinter frowns with a piercing stare at his eldest son.

“Leonardo, I would suggest that you do one of two things, leave or if you choose to stay, remained hushed, unless you are going to give advice.”  
“But he is talking about moving out of the Lair! You can’t let him do that!”  
“Do not presume to tell me how to speak, or what to say, especially when your judgement is still very clouded, to where even I cannot make sense of _how_, or _what_ you are thinking, and do not know the full details of this conversation!” Splinter scolds.  
The oldest Turtle brother looked as though he was about to argue, but held his tongue and remained seated at the spot he invited himself into whilst Splinter and Michelangelo were conversing.

Splinter returns to continue on with Michelangelo. “The fact that you have taken upon yourself to come up with solutions to all the considered options given, including the pros and cons, shows that you really have stepped up to the life path you’re now taking.”  
“I didn’t mean for something to be done straight away,” Michelangelo was quick to say, worried that he may have sounded like a choice had to made then and there.  
The Father Rat smiles with understanding. “I am aware, Michelangelo. Whatever you and Calypso decide you will have my understanding and blessing.”  
This eased Splinter’s youngest son, no longer feeling the knot he had before he started the discussion; where Michelangelo and Calypso had explored over what they were to do in the near future, in order to carry it over into the long term.  
“Take as long as you feel is adequate to have your final decision, and know that it can be changed, as it would not feel right for me to say that whatever is decided that is the end of it,” Splinter adds.  
“Thank you, Sensei.”  
Michelangelo rises from his seat and after another appreciative look, leaves the dining area, through the kitchen and into the living area.

Splinter waits until the orange wearing Turtle was out, before really giving an even harder piercing frown at his eldest son.  
“You can’t be seriously suggesting on allowing any suggestion of him moving out of the Lair!” Leonardo couldn’t help blurting out, as though he wasn’t heard the first time.  
“Such a discussion, of which you do not know all of the details, is not of your concern, unless it is chosen to be. Michelangelo is simply looking out for the welfare of what would eventually become his own family with Calypso.”  
“We’re his family! He and Calypso need to stay here! With us! Where it is safer.”  
“Michelangelo has come to me for my ear, my voice and my actual understanding of the situation; he is looking put for what is best for Calypso, and in the present stage she does not feel comfortable being within the Lair, but has been afraid to speak up to anyone else, except to Michelangelo and Arachne, both of whom has come to me with their concerns on separate occasions. Michelangelo has come up with some solutions, which have been discussed, and he has my support.”  
Leonardo was not expecting this; furrows his brow, tilting his head to the side. “What do you mean Calypso doesn’t feel comfortable?”  
“It is not my place to speak, but I am privileged to know, and I am choosing to respect your brother’s and his mate’s life and privacy and choices behind them,” Splinter speaks sharply.

“And that includes the ludicrous notion of leaving the safety of the Lair and away from us?” Leonardo exclaims, certainly displaying how against this he was. “Michelangelo is part of this clan, whether he likes it or not! He has to stay!”  
“_And I am his father, as well as yours, and as such I must also come to the hard choices of letting my child go in order for him to grow!_ Michelangelo isn’t leaving this Clan, he is still very much part of it, so how dare you make such claims when, once again, you are going on what you do not know, and have not been notified, because it isn’t for your say so here.”  
The eldest Turtle brother had never seen his Rat Father look so...

A slight shudder went through him; he hung his head, knowing he had overstepped the mark.  
“I do not agree with the idea of Michelangelo leaving, Sensei, he’s not capable of looking after -”  
“Why do you believe you have any say in what Caly and I do?”  
Michelangelo had returned, (carrying a plate and glass, and placed it in the kitchen sink), and had heard enough to figure out the gist. He now stood near the dining table, arms crossed, glaring at Leonardo.  
“As Leader of this Clan -”  
Michelangelo cuts him off again. “I didn’t need a Leader to speak to, Leo, not with what I needed to say. Plus, I didn’t wish to speak to you, Raph or Don, until I spoke to Master Splinter, who I needed more than you. Also, you may be Leader, but Splinter is still the head honcho.”  
He turns to leave, not wanting to continue.

“_You’re not leaving!_ I do not care what petty excuse your ball and chain is pulling to have you move out of the Lair, but you’re not -”  
_**Whack!**  
The throbbing to his face was enough to know that Leonardo was going to be in smarting pain for a few hours or so; Michelangelo had pulled his punch, a sign on how controlled he was, but wasn’t taking what was said lying down, either.  
“_If you ever call Calypso that again, I will do more than give you a bruised jaw!_” Michelangelo growls. He quickly apologises to Master Splinter, before making his exit._

__

Leonardo clutched the side of where Michelangelo had gotten him, looking at Splinter, as if wondering why he didn’t intervene.  
“All I am going to say, Leonardo, is that you deserved it,” said the Ninja Master, rising from his seat, holding firm to his walking stick. “As a Leader you need to understand that it is not all about you and your ideals of what are right for the Clan, but listening and observing the needs of its members, and what is best approached.  
“Not everything is your business, nor of your say so; as a brother, you also need to learn when to keep your mouth shut.”  
Leonardo is left to stew with a very sore jaw; wondering what the heck is going on to make Michelangelo want to leave their home.  
He may have accepted that Calypso chose the orange wearing Turtle, but he did not want to accept this notion of allowing the family to separate, no matter the reasons. 

__

_###_

__

Entering the bedroom, Michelangelo softly closes the door behind him, while Calypso looks up from the book she was reading – he could tell that she was trying to distract herself by all means possible right now. She saw the irritated expression on her mate’s face.  
It has been a month and a bit since they had become a pair, to where Calypso had moved into Michelangelo’s room, making it theirs.  
Seeing the concern, the orange wearing Turtle decreased the lines a little, but it wasn’t enough to ease off the worry, he told her what had transpired.  
Calypso took the hand her mate had used to punch Leonardo with, gently rubbing the skin around the knuckles. There was no pain from the type of punch Michelangelo had given, she knew that, but it was her way of making sure that he was, indeed, okay. Her touch had something of a healing quality to it, and more than just in the physical sense; he could feel himself calming down and a tender smile spread across his beak. 

__

“He wasn’t meant to be in the room when talking to Splinter, and he hadn’t even heard everything, just assumed things and went off on that, and proceeded to eavesdrop.”  
“I am sure things will work out, and your brother will come around when he and the others know more,” Calypso says, she was more in a thoughtful sort of mind, her voice a little nervous. “I just wish I knew what to expect.”  
With an extra tender peak on the forehead, and resting his hand gently on her abdomen.  
“I am here,” he assures. 

__

It was in the last week when Calypso knew their union had turned into something what was the likely to happen; which was the risk of carrying out their mating bond. She was all over the place in how to feel about this; nervous, because she didn’t know if she was carrying live offspring or eggs, or even how long her gestation is to be, plus she knew how young she was, didn’t matter if she was a mutant and simply doing what nature was clearly intending, yet she was determined to carry this out, not because she had to, but she wanted to; perhaps some form of excitement, but that excitement turns to being terrified. 

__

Terrified of the prospect of someone taking her away and then proceed to take her unborn. Much like what had happened to her growing up, and to her biological parents; Calypso woke up from sleep one night almost ready to attack someone, only to freak out a split second later, this of course wakes Mikey and sheer luck he was her mate, because he was bitten and spat at before the change into cowering and begging to not make her do it again – whatever ‘it’ was that she had done – for he wasn’t affected by her venom in any shape or form, immune, (which fascinated Donatello when relaying this to the others due concerns over the bite mark on the orange wearing Turtle’s arm, that were already starting to heal in quick succession). 

__

_ As it turned out some deep underlying memories, that were still being too illusive for her to truly recall, even in her sleep, but prominent enough for her to freak out the way she had, were the cause.  
Plus another thing had happened and that was the full fledged memories of growing up, including when she was born, seeing the imprinting of her maternal father taking form, following straight away by another like her, who had hatched before she had, “he” was bigger than she was, but still, she was held with “him” against their maternal father’s chest, protective and wanting to keep them safe._

__

After this memory, much time had passed and she was being shielded by her paternal father, he was trying to protect her from whatever was going on, all she could ‘see’ from passed this point was a set of shiny glasses in the shape of half-moons and long silver hair, she couldn’t remember anything else.  
But she then keeps thinking, over and over, and these subconscious traumas that caused her to wake from her slumber...  
Though it wasn’t until she calmed down and much apologising to one empathetic and understanding Michelangelo, did she figure out that the puzzle pieces were all starting to fall into place. 

__

She had a brother!  
Her parents were trying all they could to protect her.  
She was forced to do something... many things... but what?  
Now she was expecting her first offspring, and she was even more confused as ever as to what to do.  
This was part of why Michelangelo was talking to Master Splinter, the other part was Calypso is following her instinct, which was to find somewhere that would feel suitable to have hers and Michelangelo’s young; she was afraid of sounding rude for not wanting to be in the Lair, but to be elsewhere, wherever elsewhere happened to be. 

__

“Sensei will back us, whatever is decided,” Michelangelo also tells her.  
Her hand was on top of the one that was upon her belly, head nestled against his shoulder.  
“I wish I knew myself, on what to do. I so much want to do something, but I am unsure if it is possible to do, and I do not want to risk putting anyone in trouble.”  
“What is it that you need to do?”  
There was a difference of wanting and needing, and this was one of those times where Calypso needed to listen to her inner self.  
“I... I need...” she pauses and thinks. “I need to be close to water and maybe more warmth, but not too hot?”  
Michelangelo thinks of Calypso’s words, kissing her softly on top of her head. “We will find a way to accomplish that.” 

__

_###_

__

Later, needing to get out for a bit, Calypso went for a walk, venturing around Central Park, keeping to the shadows of the night, but semi close to the lights as well. She used her other senses, which proved to be handy when she felt the vibes of someone following her.  
She kept at a steady pace, allowing for the possibility of figuring out who the follower was.  
Weaving in and out of areas to see if she was able to lose them, clearly not happening, so she opted for a different tactic and found a good spot, making a beeline to a bridge that was over a little duck pond, while also reaching into the inner pocket of her coat and pressing a button on the shell-phone that was given to her two weeks after she had been living in the Lair. 

__

Calypso knew she was able to hold her own, able to fight, but with her condition... she would rather not have to fight if she could help it.  
“Do you think you would be okay out here by yourself?” spoke a voice she recognised. “Don’t you think someone would be worried?”  
She spun around, seeing him in the flesh, emerging from the bushes, his expression as obvious as his blue bandanna. It unnerved her.  
“Leo? Why are you...? Why were you...?”  
“Does it matter?” asks the eldest Turtle, shaking his head, still with that expression. The vibes she was forever picking up for the past few weeks now, ever since his return from his ‘cooling off walk’ after learning that she had chosen Michelangelo as her mate, one that rang of obsession and want... for her...  
But at times he would act like he was when she first met him, where the vibes did not reek of something that would cause her stress, but whenever Leonardo was acting normal, Calypso would sense that he was trying to say something, but could never find the best way to, or something felt off, still. 

__

“No... I suppose not,” Calypso slowly replies.  
The Turtle edges closer, or attempts to, causing Calypso to step back.  
“Do you not trust me?”  
“I...” 

__

A sudden shouting sound that echoed through from the other side of the bridge caused Calypso to turn to see what it was.  
She blinks with confusion at what she was seeing, only to suddenly see nothing but dark and the feeling of going heavy on to the ground.  
By the time she finally woke up, the scene of a familiar set of walls, doors, floor and even the very bed was enough to send the girl into tears, and holding her belly, knowing exactly where she was, and how it was pulled off.  
It was Leonardo she saw running toward her and the other Leonardo, only it wasn’t him, it was...  
“Welcome home, Little Fish.”  
Her blue and amber eyes darting to see the birdlike features and olive complexion of...  
“Elrik.” 

__

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trying to write a slightly weirded out Leonardo was NOT EASY!  
More of what the heck whenever I have the next lot of chapters up and ready.
> 
> I do hope all who are reading this story, have have reached this far, are all safe! Take care and peace out.

**Author's Note:**

> To add - it was this particular story that gave the idea for another story/series I had written, known as the "Beyond Series", it is because of this reason it's going to be added into it, as the alternative/original story.


End file.
